The New Shield Hero
by Mionikoi
Summary: Sonya is an unfortunate young lady who looses her home, has a debt piled on her head,For reasons. ;3 )
1. Chapter 1

A girl groaned. She looked at the sign that hung on her apartment door that was chained shut. She had being evicted. For the last time. It wasn't fair! Her father left her with a debt and skipped town. All their stuff was left on the road side. Anything that couldn't or wouldn't be sold anyways. They had liquidated their valuable belongings. That included her laptop.

" And I was just about to beat Gwyn too! Ugh! Now I'm going to have to start all over again!" She said as checked the windows.

It wasn't the first time they had tried to lock her out. It only took her a few minutes to find out that it was officially locked down tight.

"Jerks! Dad, you're included! I was doing well in my university! Now I can't take fall classes because of you!" She sat down on the curb.

At least she wasn't going to get deported back to America. She was a Japanese citizen.

" Maybe they will let me stay at a shrine or something." She started to dig for documents proving her citizenship. Then she found it. Sonya Alice Brint or Birinte. Citizen of Japan since she was four! She shoved this neatly in her shoulder bag... That use to be her laptop bag. She continued to dig through for more important documentation to do the same thing.

Sonya sighed as she stared into a broken mirror. She was an average sized young woman with long black hair. An American born, she stood out between her European inherited facial features and her naturally blue eyes. Her hair was a shoulder length black that was tied back with a white lace ribbon. She was wearing a gray sun dress that came down to her knees. Most women her age ended up calling her prude behind her back. Or an otaku. She chuckled knowing the last part was true and the first part... Well she just didn't care. She was a big video game nerd... Or Otaku. She knew it wasn't meant to be a compliment towards her either.

Sonya sat up and looked up at the sky to try and find the sun. It was cloudy due to the rain season encroaching into it's full swing.

"They even took the umbrellas!" She whined.

Sonya hurried down the road. It would rain soon. Then she had an idea. She could stay at the library for a little while!It was a brilliant plan! All the books she could ever want to read! And security was lax so maybe she could hide. And then it started raining. Hard. She made it to the library dripping water at the entrance. she sat under an eave to let herself drip dry a little before going inside. 'Good thing I'm not wearing anything see through... And A bra.' She said and sighed. When she was finally ready to enter she was immediately asked to leave. The library was closing early due to a family crises. And with that, her plans were foiled.

Although the Librarian that owned the building did tell her their was a rack of free books she could access from the entrance. Sonya smiled at this at least. She looked through them and sighed when she noticed one falling of the rack.

"Lazy people. Can't even put a book back right." She mumbled to herself as she brushed it off.

She looked at the cover. The four heroes. She opened it out of curiosity. It told of a legend about a set of hero who were summoned to fight a series of calamities. One was a sword hero who acted like a lone wolf but later became more reliable. The next was the spear hero, who was a womanizer. The third was the hero of the bow who was naive and had his own sense of justice. And the fourth was the Hero of the Shield, who was a greedy, dense, and a cruel natured man, but was also prudent, did business that benefited him as well as with those who would do business with him, and protected his companions and anyone in danger fiercely instead of seeking glory.

Then there was this princess who was a horrible person... And it went on to explain what happened to the heroes because of her. It had a very sad part and some parts that Sonya had to simply shake her head at. The shield hero really was a mean spirited idiot! But she laughed too. Shields were awesome. She liked being a shielder just so she could attack and block at the same time. It made her feel epic when she brought things that seemed impossible down.

She was surprised when the book didn't end with the shield hero ascending to a god with his companion and defeating an evil Goddess and going on to defend a multiverse. It seemed weird. Instead it went on about how there was a new calamity that the heavens decided to let a new set of heroes handle. A new legend began. A new sword hero who was fiery spirited. A new spear hero, who was brave and confident. A new bow hero who was cunning. And the shield hero... Sonya looked puzzled when the pages were blank. Then she became so tired and everything went black.


	2. Chapter 2

Sonya woke up groggily. She was on a cold hard surface that was glowing underneath. She tried to cover her head with her arm but instead, smacked herself with metal object clinging to her arm. "Ow ow ow ow ow!" She wined as she sat up and looked around her. She was sitting on some kind of a magic altar thing that looked like what witches used to summon evil spirits and demons. And people were standing on it staring down at her. She felt her face and realized she had been drooling in her sleep so she took out a handkerchief and wiped it away.

She stood up and looked at everyone. They all looked in her direction with a, 'Are you serious?' expression. "What? I was asleep! ... Okay, okay, I snore! But not loudly! And who can help if they drool in their sleep!?" She said nervously playing with her hair as she glanced down at the small shield clinging to her arm. It wouldn't come off. But it was small and very light at least. She noticed that it was whitish-gray and had a green gem in the center.

"Your a woman." Said a guy with a spear. Sonya gasped mockingly. " WOW! You noticed? And you are Captain Obvious! When do we set sail to the island of-" She was cut off by an older man wearing a crown. "Ahem! Excuse me Shield Hero, but I have ordered for you and your counterparts to be summoned here... Although not all of you at once. But such an event can not be helped. Please follow me to the throne room where we will explain the situation in more detail." He said and walked through a door and down a hallway. Sonya sighed. There was a short haired blond guy with a sword who walked out first following the king and a tall man with a spear and spiky red hair who followed beside a short black haired boy who almost looked like a girl with his hair tied back in a pony tail. He carried a bow. Sonya followed behind some robed guys who looked like mages. They seemed to be nervous.

Soon she came to a chamber that had two thrones and a table with wooden chairs. The thrones were on a dais while the table stood horizontally in front of the throne with four chairs behind it and platters of food. The tables and chairs were set so the king apparently would be facing them. "Please, have a seat Heroes and feel free to eat while I explain the situation." He said as he sat in his throne and placed his hands on a cane that he leaned on slightly. The other three guys sat down while Sonya sat at the end. She scooted her chair a bit away from the table so she could place her cloth napkin on her lap. "Thank you for the food!" She called out after clapping her hands in a little prayer fashion. This earned her a look from the three young men who apparently were all Japanese. They very well could have been from her neighborhood. She was using a pair of chopsticks that had been provided instead of the fork and knife that seemed very foreign to her. The whole European theme seemed ruined by the chopsticks she ate with, but they were there, and she was more comfortable using them.

"Did anyone teach you that it is rude to stare?" She asked knowing what they were thinking. It was because she was a 'foreigner'. She had spent most of her life in Japan and she had been use to being looked at funny. And treated differently. She was use to being treated like an outsider. A foreigner. Even though she was raised in Japan most of her life. Even though on a daily basis she had acted like any respectable Japanese bred woman would. But she had grown tired of it. Especially when things turned sour for her recently. She turned away from them and looked about. The king seemed content to let the four of them eat while he listened to a mumbled report from a page boy. If she had to guess, this must have something around the resonance era.

Sonya looked at the chopsticks and wondered. The food was... Odd. There was eggs that tasted like oranges! But otherwise it was all just fine. But why chopsticks? Not that she minded. It was just one her mind. She then looked at the shield on her left arm after a while. She would worry about it later. It was stuck to her anyways. Eventually they finished their plates and the food was taken away. So much for the king explaining things while they ate. Oh, well.  
" Ahem. Heroes, I am sure you are wondering why you have been gathered here. Most of you already know that there is a calamity on its way. To be more specific, one such event has already come and gone. Repelling it was far from easy. And many lives were lost. Many people were taken away. Heroes. I am Edward Melromark the XLVI. I am the current Hero of The Cane and am responsible for your summons from the other worlds. I must ask that each of you go on a journey to gather strength in both yourselves and your weapons. Legends foretell that each legendary weapon of the four heroes conflict and impede each other, so your journeys must be separate with other adventures and not with other heroes of weapons of the divine four. You will be compensated and rewarded for your services. Also aid finances will be given monthly."

The king rose from his throne and waved for them all to rise. " Please introduce yourselves Heroes." He said calmly with a warm smile. The sword guy was first. He was the short haired blond guy who was stood about average height. He would probably be considered very attractive. Brown eyes and a smug look on his face. She seen that a dozen times. " I'm Akai Arashi. I'm twenty-one and a university student." He said bowing and sitting down when the king waved for him to take his seat again. The spiky red head's turn. He looked like a delinquent. His button up shirt was open to expose his bare chest. She guessed he was trying to show off a well defined body to 'the ladies' or try to intimidate any possible rivals. He looked like a slob to her though. " My name is Shimo Ishiku. I'm nineteen and in between schools." He said sitting back down without being indicated. Girly bow boy was next. " I'm Yuki Uta. I'm eighteen and I just graduated high school." She said giving a curtsey. 'Holy crap, she's a girl! It didn't help that she was wearing such baggy clothes!' Sonya thought trying to keep a straight face. She took note on how slim she was, but perhaps she was rather strong. She wasn't bad looking either. Probably had a lot of boys hit on her. Uta was wearing something like cargo pants and a long sleeve shirt with a jacket that was open at the front.

Sonya stood up when Yuki sat down. " I'm Sonya Birinte. I'm twenty-four and a university student." She said giving a curtsey with her dress and sitting down after being indicated. The king looked at them all with amusement. Arashi and Ishiku both seemed surprised when Yuki spoke up. She must have stayed silent the entire time Sonya had slept! And then their reaction when they found out Sonya was their senpai! Sonya grinned.

The King sat back down and looked as if he was lost in thought for a moment. " I would like for you all to review your statuses please." The king said when he finally spoke up. Ishiku and Arashi looked puzzled. Uta looked like she was reading something invisible to everyone else. Sonya shrugged. She looked around an noticed something just in the corner of her vision. She focused on that out of curiosity and it expanded. This startled her. 'Is this like some kind of game world?' She asked then sighed. It was an easy to digest profile of her physical status. She noted that she leaned heavily on defense, had decent agility and a good value of hit points. Her attack was barely rather meager. Almost non-existent. She frowned. She should have at least a small amount of attack. Maybe it was because of the shield itself?

"What do you mean by status your Majesty?" Arashi-San asked. Sonya raised her hand. "Look at the corner of your vision. Probably the bottom right corner of your peripheral vision. Focus on that." Sonya said and sighed as she started examining the rest of her stats. No skills, plain gray otherworldly dress, no magic or spells. Small shield, Legendary. She glared at it. ' You better at least be able to upgrade with SOME attack points. Or turn into a pierce shield. I get that your a weapon so let me use you to bash stuff to death!' She mentally said towards the shield. She didn't expect and answer, but instead a help menu appeared. The king stood up once more. " Heroes, it has been pleasant. Now that introductions are over I would like to inform you that adventurers who volunteered to accompany you will arrive tomorrow to introduce themselves and choose whom of you they will follow. Until then you are dismissed and free to go about where you wish. If you wish to leave the castle and explore the city for the day please speak with one of the guards so my one of my trusted retainers will accompany you. Thank you for your time." The king said and gave them a nod that they may go while he beckoned for a scribe to present him with the news he brought.

Sonya looked at the three other heroes A female knight walked up to them. " For the time being I will be your guide." She said. Sonya raised an eyebrow. She had cat ears... And a tail! Sonya followed her and the other heroes fell closely behind. She frowned when she saw Ishiku-san trying to grab her tail and blocked his hand with her shield by pretending to stumble a little. She could hear Arashi-san snicker and Uta-san suppress a giggle. Ishiku simply glared at her.

They arrived at two bedrooms they would be staying in. " These will be your rooms for the night. Men will be across from the women. " The female knight said pointing to which rooms they belonged to. Ishiku scoffed and went into the men's room to claim his bed. The knight frowned at him all the while. " I would like to see the city if that is okay."Arashi-san said. Uta-san looked towards Sonya wondering what they should do. Sonya just simply smiled. " Not like exploring wouldn't hurt." Sonya said simply. The female knight smiled. " I would be happy to accompany the three of you. If Spear hero wishes to also come..." She said trailing off with intentional distaste at the end towards the idea. "Nah, I'm crashing in here for the day." He said and shut the door. The female knight sighed in relief. She probably didn't want to deal with a perverted miscreant.

Sonya thought back. She didn't really take the chance to stop and look at her surroundings. The walls around her were old and made of stone. The ceiling above however, was newer. It made sense. Because they probably had to replace everything above every so often. Or they expanded. Why was she thinking about this again? "Excuse me Senpai? Where will we be going to next?" Uta-san asked. Sonya blinked and looked at the younger lady who had spoken. Her group, apparently was looking towards her as if for some form of leadership or direction. " To the markets then!" Sonya chimed happily. She looked towards the female knight to show the way. Arashi-san looked at Sonya as if she was odd. "We don't have any money senpai." The young man stated. Sonya simply grinned. " Would you rather wait till you have money to buy things you need without knowing the market price y, or would you rather already have a good idea what the prices in the market are?" She asked simply. " Think of it this way. If you ask around and take notes you will get to see how much the price fluctuates and see through obvious scams and rip offs. It is obvious that if a merchant knows you don't have money they don't have any reason to raise the prices." Sonya looked at them all. They were all wide eyed.

" Price hunting. When you live in poverty you tend to learn how to find the best quality items for the lowest prices available." She said simply. The female knight nodded at her logic. " Let's get going then." the dame said and started to guide them along their way. " I take it you played in the market for Emerald Squire a lot?" Arashi-san asked. Sonya looked at him wondering what he was talking about. " No, I never herd of such a game. What is it about?" She asked. Arashi-san looked at her amazed. " Then Wind-sword Online?" Uta-san asked her. " It is a lot like this world. It is a VRMMO." Sonya shook her head. "The king said something about worlds... I guess we all are from different worlds.. Or at least I am." She said once she thought about it for a moment. The other two heroes nodded at the idea while they exited the castle gate. "What games did you play then?" Arashi-san asked her. Sonya giggled. " Oh, I was in love with a game that's famous quote is, 'Prepare to die!' And you do that quite a lot. You play as an undead, but your not exactly a rotting bag of flesh... It is more like your body is withering away... Anyway, You die a lot in that game and you get brought back to a save point. However you loose a currency you collect from killing enemies that also doubles as experience points. Because you are undead, you don't ever truly die due to a curse, but it is implied that other undead are the same but are slowly driven insane until they become what is called Hollow. With that, they attack and kill anything not hollow, even other undead." Sonya said happily. " You are forced to learn and analyze everything. From an opponent's move sets, to environment. Ect. Ect. A really hard core game. Especially when you loose all your exp and an item that allows yo to become human again." Uta-san looked at the shield hero impressed. " Wow! That game sounds really dark!" She said a little nervously. Sony laughed. " It is! It is incredibly dark and dreary and the humor in it... Like, every character just about is laughing at the end of their dialogue. It is rather creepy." Sonya said. "But yeah. It is dark and sad. The difficulty is determined by the weapon you use."

Arashi-san looked at her. It was the female knight who turned to ask Sonya the question. " If that is true, then what weapon did you use?" The cat dame asked. Sonya grinned. "I think the second or third hardest weapon to fight with. The shield. Going bare handed is the hardest obviously." Sonya answered. Arashi-san simply shook his head. Uta-san simply looked at the legendary shield on Sonya's arm. " From my understanding the legendary shield has very little attack. This had been true for the last shield hero. How is it that a shield could be used the way you did?" The dame asked. Sonya shrugged. " It is the only weapon that let me attack while still defending. I simply charged into stuff and every now and again dodged and bashed. It takes longer then most other weapons but it is actually rather practical. You are tanking the damage, sometimes negating it all together and waiting for an opportunity to strike. I mean, some shields had higher attack points then others but, I guess none of them really compared to weapons that were in the same class or had the same amount of upgrades." The other two heroes simply looked skeptical. Sonya simply shrugged. " That's how the game was made. You can use anything available to beat the game. Even nothing. But how you do it determines how easy it is for you." Sonya said and paused once they arrived at the market.

The rest of the day was exploring prices. Sonya quickly learned that she couldn't use another weapon with her shield. This didn't exactly phase her. What surprised her was how well stocked the stores were. Then again, this was real life and they were in a capital city. So it made sense. She related this information to her juniors and instead looked at armor. Eventually she had enough and decided to take a seat at a table to a tavern so she could read her help menu. Tomorrow the real adventure would begin.


	3. Chapter 3

Sonya learned a lot as the day wore on to evening and they had to make their way back to the castle to sleep in their rooms. She learned that her shield had a unlockable tree for other forms of shields. She also learned that the last shield hero had expanded a large portion of the rules for how to upgrade the shield but she would have to level up to do it. This world felt very game-ish. But that was how the world worked. She thought about the first upgrade bath, which was absorbing items. It was very clear in the instructions that certain material would unlock certain shields. As well as items. She wasn't exactly familiar with this system. But she understood it at least.

Sonya also discovered that Ishiku-san was a very perverted jerk. He pretended to be listening to the information she related to him about what she discovered from the help menu but the only thing he seemed to be interested in was her measurements. She wished she had a Spiked Shield so she could slap him with it. Another thing she discovered was that her normal strength did not effect the output of damage she could do, which infuriated her because a certain perverted jerk tried to feel her up while she was busy talking to Uta-san. She had hit him in the face as hard as she could, but it did nothing. So instead she grabbed his arms and kick him as hard as she could in the crouch. Twice. And the she stood with a foot on his man hood leaning over him to add even more pressure to his family jewels. She wasn't going to neuter him but she was going to come close. " Let me make this very clear to you. I might not be as strong as I was in my world but I will find a way to hurt you. And if you try this again I will rip those off and you can start to sit down when you need to pee. Do you understand me?" She said looking down at him. He looked back at her with hatred until she started to grind her foot down. Then he weakly nodded his head. She glared at him with disgust and anger as he writhed on the ground with his hands in between is legs. "Don't screw around with me. In fact, if I catch you doing this to any other women you'll pay dearly." She said and walked off, going to her room. She caught a glimpse of Arashi-san's frightened face. Uta-san looked up at her a little nervously. Sonya didn't care if she wasn't acting like she should. If someone wanted to group her they should prepare to be in for a hurting. She wondered if she should have just used pressure points instead, but she figured her attack strength had been reduced so it probably wouldn't have worked.

She went to bed after eating and reading more of the help menu. She was still excited for the adventure that was about to begin.

The event she was waiting for could not come sooner. She was having breakfast but she paid little mind to it other than to fill her stomach. Soon they would meet the other adventurers who would be joining them to combat the Calamity. It couldn't come soon enough! Soon the King finally called them into the main hall. The table was not there. Instead he had them lined up facing the large doors. Beyond those large doors awaited men and women who would join them, fight along side them, laugh and cry and become close to them. Sonya fidgeted with her hair trying to prim herself up while Ishiku-sand glared at her darkly before composing himself and looking forward. She figured his pride must have been hurting among other things.

Then the doors finally opened. Sixteen men and women in all walked in. They all looked like adventurers. Some looking like Knights, others like rogues and rangers. A few looked more magically oriented and a couple carried guns. " Now adventures, choose your hero!" The king commanded. Sonya looked a little disappointed when she glanced back at the king. She thought they would at least get to talk to them, relay their strengths and weaknesses and come up with strategies and a very workable system. She forced a smile. She couldn't let this method phase her. They would just have to swing with it!

The next thing to happen surprised her. Divided evenly everyone should have a party of five including the hero. Even that not being the case and each party not being completely balanced no one decided to join her. At first this hurt. This made her feel like an outcast. But then she thought about it. This was okay. This gave her a chance to really be meticulous about who joined her. Maybe she could even help develop a few of her would be party member's skills. She knew she needed someone, but for now she could experiment by herself and figure out more about how the world worked. What she could do, what she couldn't do. And not be embarrassed about her failures due to her ignorance. Se was already planning a strategy that would help her succeed. But she needed to also focus on the here and now.

She looked about her. The Spear hero's party had him and five others. Two men who looked like heavy armored knights while the three women in his party consisted of one mage and two ranger looking ladies. The Sword hero's party was a the same. One male gun wielder, a knight, a spearman, a female warrior glad in leather armor and a female mage. Then the Bow hero's party. One female gun wielder two male archers and three male knights with large shields. Sonya smiled pleasantly. "This, is rather a surprise." The king said aloud. Sonya turned and smiled to him. " This is fine. I'll make due with myself." She said confidently. The king frowned even more. " I am sure you might Shield Hero and my apologies but..." He said then sighed and looked towards the other parties. " Each hero has their strengths and weaknesses. The shield hero in times before has proved to have the power that aid and strengthen his comrades as well as bravery to take blows that would otherwise kill them and nearly do so to him. He proved to be one of the most powerful of them. I am sure many of you are aware of this. So speak your minds? Why to you shun her?" Sonya respected the King. He was a fair ruler, but he probably didn't feel it necessary to be discreet about the issue and forgo embarrassing her. It was because she was strange. Different. It was because she came off as mean and maybe even menacing. It was because people thought that she might be a demon. And some who had the courage to said so. "Your majesty, I'll go with her." A blond woman who was the female warrior glad in leather armor said. Sonya frowned and turned to the king. Something about her felt sketchy. She didn't want to be alone with her. "Your majesty, I don't want anyone who is going to make me their second choice or go with me because they feel sorry for me. If I can make a request, the Dame from earlier that acted as our guide. Could you ask her if she would be interested in supervising me while I go about trying to strengthen myself and find members of my own party?" She confirmed her suspicion with the blond woman. She looked at her darkly as if Sonya had ruined her scheme but then turned her face to hurt. Sony game the King her full attention trying to convey to him through her facial expression that she was trying to be careful. The King caught on and nodded. " I will ask Lady Dianna if she would consider the proposal. For now, I will distribute the monthly aid money." He said.

Five hundred to each of them. Sonya was given seven hundred initially but she quickly refused. She knew this would further make her a target. If anything she would become an even likelier target because she was being treated differently. She simply said she wanted to be treated the same as the other heroes and that she would make due with what she had. When the others had left the king sat facing the Shield Hero with a hand holding his eyes. " I am sorry that I am being so difficult and selfish. But I feel it is best if this path is taken. To be honest, I don't trust that woman. She might have seemed to have had good intentions but I have been the butt end of jokes and being used many times before to know when someone is going to use me for their own interests. I'm not a naive little girl." Sonya said kneeling. The king looked at her with a frown. " That was my daughter you shunned. " The king said. "My daughter that you are speaking of." Sonya nodded. " I do not wish to insult you or her but I haven't exactly lived the easiest life in my world. I trust my instincts, my wisdom and I have lived as independently as I could. I have found that the only person in that world I could truly rely on was myself. Even my own father threw me to the curve side with all his dept not too long ago. So please forgive me your majesty if I have offended you and if I come off rude. I'm just trying to protect myself."  
The king looked at her and shook his head. " Very well then." He said and waved for a page boy who looked at the Shield Hero with awe before coming and running to stand and bow before the king. "Go and give Lady Diana my request. If she accepts, please ask her to meet the Shield hero at the castle gate." He said and watched the boy bow again and leave. The King looked at the gray clad maiden before him. A gray dress, a pale face, and black hair. A small shield clung to her arm and no one to really support her but herself in combat. What was she thinking? The King bid for her to rise and go. She did so and curtsied. "Thank you very much our Majesty. I will do my very best to defend this world." She said and with that she left.

The cat knight came out from behind a banner that hid a secret passageway. " She's prudent. You have to at least give her that." Lady Diana said with a smile. " I think she would do well to adventure to Rock Valley." The king simply nodded. He looked worried. "If the past repeats itself again, the shield has blocked disaster from consuming this world. I think so to will it do so again." The cat knight reassured him before leaving.

With that Sonya smiled excitedly as she counted her five hundred worth of silver coins. In reality she had a hundred copper coins three gold coins and a hundred and ninety-nine silver. This equaled to five gold coins or five hundred silver. One hundred copper equaled one silver and a hundred silver equaled one gold. It was a common system in games. What worried her at first was how inflated the market might have been before she had gone shopping. But her fears had been laid to rest once she saw the prices. When Dianna finally arrived they opted to go to the weapons store. It had the highest quality of wares and was run by and old man and woman. Apparently they were siblings who had long since had their own children and grand children and decided to run their father's store. Sonya looked at some of the wares noting the prices. Some of the wares were insanely expensive. Others seemed rather odd. She really didn't know what to think other then that she should probably stick with the basics. "Is there anything I can help you with lass?" The lady who helped run the store asked. Sonya nodded. " I'm looking for armor for myself. I was here yesterday looking at prices. I've come to buy now." Sonya said confidently. " I'm looking for more of the raw hide based armor. maybe with a little bit of metal plating, but I want to be light and flexible." The woman looked towards the man both smiling they had a customer that really knew what she wanted. " And what would your budget be lass?" The man asked as his sister went ahead and looked for some measuring tape and something to write information down on. Apparently she was very well versed in fitting armor.

It made sense that they had to measure her since armor didn't exactly work well in small medium and large. It had to fit snug. Or as snugly as they could make it. Sonya chose rawhide because it was hard, nearly as hard as wearing iron armor without the weight, but it was rigid. Unlike metal, it could not be reforged or hammered back into shape. Once a hole was poked through, the damaged section of armor needed to be replaced altogether. But it was light and tough stuff. "About two and a half gold. I can't use a weapon so I'm looking at the best armor I can use for now. The store owners paused. " Then regular boiled armor is out of the question. You aren't exactly in dragon or drake territory but... Lets see now. Yes this should do well. The armor is made from chimera hide. It should serve you well. The stuff is tougher then cow or bear hide and is in your price range." The man said while his sister scowled. " It is no where near as good as Barbarian armor or turtle armor. But someone starting off shouldn't have to come back for naught but repairs." The lady said. " I hope you will consider coming back to us for business." Sonya smiled and nodded. She liked these people. They really seemed like reliable professionals. The man sighed. " I would think Black Chimera hide would work better for her. Matches her hair anyways." He said as he went into the back. "Are you going senile? Obviously grey dyed fits her fancy better! Look at her dress? Does this not say she is a warrior of stone?" The lady retorted. Sonya smiled a a little taken back as they continued to bicker and banter about what armor fit her better. They then went on to argue about whether they should throw pauldrons into the mix. Lady Dianna simply laughed. "You better stop them before they charge you more then you bargained for." She said as a playful warning. Sonya sighed. " I'd like a cloak to go along with it. Something that doesn't stain to well. But I mean it, my budget is two and a half gold. And if I'm not mistaken the chimera hide is two gold for its weight in market..." The two siblings stopped and considered her. For a minutes. " Two and a half gold coins and five silver for a total of the full armor set, its under armor, cloak, and a decent pair of traveling boots." The store lady said. Sonya cocked her head. " Two gold and forty five silver it is." She said. The man coughed. "Two gold and Sixty silver." He said gruffly. "Two hundred and Thirty silver." Sonya said. The old woman scowled. "Three gold coins." She said sternly. Sonya raised an eyebrow. " Two and a forty-ninth gold coins and no higher or I'm going to go find an armorer else where." She said. The two siblings looked at each other and relented. They were not going to get more then her stated budget.

And so Sonya walked out with a pack that now contained her grey dress and some medical herbs, a set of chimera lamellar armor, a green cloak, some reinforced leather gloves with chimera rawhide on the back and a comfortable set of traveling boots on her feet. The chimera hide armor formed into a piece that covered her torso with lamellar while her lower half was protected by a skirt and greaves. Her arms were only protected by vambraces and her gloves. But she had her shield that would protect the rest of her. She thought about a helmet but Nothing felt right. She would forgo one for now and maybe look for a hat later. For now it was off to the nearby fields for leveling. " Shield Hero-sama Would it not be wise for us to be in one party?" The cat knight offered sending her a request. Sonya nodded. "I wasn't exactly sure how me being a hero places me in the social ladder but please just call me Lady Brint." Sonya said as she accepted the invitation. The cat knight tilted her head to the side before nodding. " Very well then Lady Brint." Lady Dianna said as they began to walk out to the fields. It didn't take to long before they met their first monster. A Orange Balloon. And aptly named because it looked just as such. It had sharp teeth and red eyes. "Careful Shield hero, they are weak put they are very aggressive." The neko knight warned. Sonya nodded but charged forward with her shield raised so she would plow straight into to round little monster. It bounced away looking as if it took little or no damage. Sonya was not perturbed. She charged it again this time slamming her body and weight into it. It didn't pop but was pinned down instead. She tried using the pointed part of her shield but it bounced of. It took her five minutes of trying to kill it before she gained a meager amount of experience points. She sighed. Well at least she could kill them. " Lady Brint, maybe it would be more productive if I attack and you defend?" Lady Dianna offered.

Sonya looked back to her. She must look like a fool, but she was only learning what she could and couldn't do. She noted that the shield seemed to react to the scraps of rubber left behind from the Orange Balloon. She held the scraps closer to the gem in the center and the scraps were absorbed. There was a message that said she unlocked the small balloon shield series and needed more material to master the orange balloon shield which would give her bonus defense once mastered, even if she wasn't using it. " Lets wait till mid afternoon before we switch strategies. I still have some things I would like to try. I know they might not work, but I want to exhaust them first." She said. She understood she wasn't exactly being the most reasonable of people but the knight nodded her head understandingly. She sat on a rock and waited. Sonya looked at the cat knight for a moment, then the rock she was standing on. If the shield absorbed materials then... She went up to the large rock and grabbed a piece of flint. The shield reacted. It opened up the rock series. Flint shield had a one attack bonus and a skill, Shield Rush. " Lady Dianna, would you mind if I use that rock for a moment. I have a plan." She said with an evil grin as another orange balloon appeared. Sonya batted it away trying to position it between her and the large rock that Lady Dianna got down from. Sonya concentrated on the Flint Shield. Her shield changed into a round stone gray small shield. A message chimed that the skill was now available. It had a very fast cool down and required little SP. "Shield Rush!" Sonya yelled out and felt her momentum increase as she plowed into the balloon and forced it into the rock. The satisfied noise of it popping came to her ears. " That's what I wanted to see. " She said smiling. She figured that the shield might not allow her any real attack, but if you were in between a rock and a wall that was slamming into you, you would be squished.

The cat knight looked surprised. " Impressive Lady Brint. I didn't know your attack power was so much. The new shield's form must have..." She trailed off when Sonya began to shake her head. " No, it only offered me a little attack. The real damage was from the monster being shoved into another object." She said as she began to collect flint to master the shield. She had to level up before she could master the balloon shield but it was good to get the requirements ready for that. " Lets switch to your strategy for the time being." Sonya said. The other woman nodded and with that they began to kill Orange and some yellow balloons.

The end of the day's progress was that Sonya gained three levels, mastered the Flint, Yellow and Orange Balloon shield and learned that Lady Dianna was a Lv: 35 Knight. The flint shield offered her a +1 attack bonus and her skill. The two balloon shields she mastered offered her +1 defense each. They decided to eat dinner at a tavern and sleep at an INN. Sonya made sure the door was barred and she hid the last gold coin in the blouse of her night gown she had bought on their way back and now wore to bed. She felt like she could have trusted Dianna but didn't know how bad the thieves were or how lax the security. And then there was that blond girl. She might try to scheme something. " Good night Lady Dianna." Sonya said as she pulled the covers over her. " Good night Lady Brint." She said blowing out the candle she had been using and going to sleep in her own clothes, but holding her sword in scabbard close to her as she slept. Sonya quickly found out that her shield absorbed her pillow and became a convenient pillow shield. It had no bonuses other then a one +1/4th HP,MP, SP regeneration. This also meant Sonya would have to pay the nice inn keeper man for his loss of a pillow.


	4. Chapter 4

It was the middle of the night that the knight Dianna woke Sonya up to inform her she had urgent business with the king. Sonya nodded and barred the door behind the Dame before going back to sleep. It was a few hours later that Soya heard a knocking on the door. Still sleepy Sonya dragged herself out of bed. " Who... *yawn ***** Who is it?" Sonya asked. No answer. She went back to bed. Not a moment before she covered herself with a blanket did someone burst through the door. Sonya threw the covers off. She stood crouched seeing a man with a knife looking at her with an intent she knew too well. She had a weapon though. She concentrated on the shield. She couldn't panic. The shield would protect her, right?

The man ran at her his free hand grasping at the collar of her nightdress. She tried to push him away but she couldn't. She tried to kick him, but he blocked it and ripped the front of her dress. "Shield Rush!" Sonya yelled and the next thing she heard was a sickening crunch and the sound of a coin striking the hard surface of the floor. Sonya covered the front of her chest with her free arm and tried to keep her night gown from revealing her chest . She backed away from the man she had slammed into the wooden wall. He slid down spitting blood before struggling onto his feet and staggering into the hallway. He collapsed not far away. Sonya looked around her. A few people were poking their heads out of their rooms to see what the commotion was. They saw a woman with a torn dress on and a blood speckled shield standing at a doorway with a door knocked off its hinges behind her. Some knew all to well what happened. But then the blond girl from yesterday was there. She looked at the body and then was pointing her finger at Sonya. "MURDERER!" She screeched. Sonya stared at her then the body down the hall. Something dawned on her. "If you are going to send an assassin, send a better one." Sonya muttered before she walked back into her room. Leaving the shocked and confused woman behind and placing the door in the way so she could get dressed into her armor.

City guards soon came in to see Sonya sitting in her chimera armor adjusting her hair in a mirror. She was obviously shaken but her face was very plane, even calm. In walked Lady Dianna. She picked up the coin on the floor and handed it to Sonya. " I should not have left. " The dame said. Sonya shrugged. "What has happened has happened. Is word spreading that I was assaulted or that I'm a murderer?" Sonya asked surprising herself with her calm voice despite how she really felt. This has happened before. Except the last guy was pushed out a window. She sat on the bed and hugged herself. The knight looked at her. " I'll vouch that you defended yourself. It is obvious that the man forced his way in." The guards were looking at the man's body. " He was crushed..." One whispered.

Sonya closed her eyes. She didn't see the face of her attacker. She didn't want to see his eyes. She didn't want to know.

It was the same as last time. The time she had killed her attacker. She didn't intend to, but it happened. The King and his officials did not even bother to give her a trial. Or charge her. It was clear she could not be charged for murder. Still, an investigation was in order. Why was a person attacking the shield hero? Legally, Sonya was in the right. But that didn't stop the rumors from spreading. Sonya was a killer as far as some were concerned. A murderer, a monster. She could see it in some of their eyes. This felt all too familiar. She and her father moved to another city because of this. Now the same thing.

"Lady Brint!" The cat knight called out after they were dismissed. After Sonya had left the castle and made her way through the market. Sonya considered ignoring her but decided not to. She wasn't sure where the knight stood with her killing a human but it wouldn't do to alienate someone whom might still stand up for her. "I'm sorry, I stormed off. Can we go and have breakfast?" Sonya asked trying to calm herself. The cat knight nodded. Soon they were at a tavern and seated, all the while the cat knight looked concerned. Sonya sighed. " Yes?" Sonya asked trying to prompt the other woman to say something. To speak her mind.

"It is just. Has this happened to you before?" Lady Dianna asked. Sonya closed her eyes, took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "Yes. I was alone at home studying for my final exams when a man who had been stalking me for a while forced his way into my home. I didn't know how to defend myself at the time, but I still fought back anyways. He ended up getting pushed out of my window and we lived on the second floor. He hit the ground the wrong way and snapped his neck. I refused to ever look at his face because I always heard that if you kill someone their dying face will haunt you... It was the people in my neighborhood that made things worse though. They all felt like I was a murderer. Some thought I should have just let him have his way with me. I won't bother asking how this one managed to break the bar that held the door back." Sonya said calmly and drank some tea once it was brought to them.

The dame looked at her with what must have been a mixture of awe and disbelief. Sonya Shrugged. " How can you be so calm?" The knight finally asked. Sonya frowned. " Practice. Especially with the debt collectors that always seemed to hound me because of my dad... As I said, my life wasn't exactly the easiest." She said and drank her tea trying to calm her nerves. She wasn't going to tell the dame she was really shaken right now. She was just happy that her hands weren't trembling like an earthquake.

The knight sighed. She looked at Sonya and then thought about what they would do. " Well, you should be fine going to a place called Rock Valley. Even if rumors travel there they will probably side with you. Besides, those there would think highly of you. It was the previous shield hero that founded the kingdom there." The knight said trying to feign a casual air. Sonya saw right through it and gave her an annoyed look. " Just tell me you want me to go there because of whatever reason." Sonya said and took another sip of her tea. The dame looked at the shield heroine with an open mouth, caught off guard. Then the cat knight giggled. " Very well then. If such a case that events like this was to unfold for the next shield hero it was agreed between the Queens that the Shield hero would receive support from Rock Valley." The knight said.

Sonya took another sip with her eyes now closed as she thought it over. " And you are a knight belonging to the court of Rock Valley's Queen?" She asked. The cat knight could not stay composed. She had thought she had cleverly hid that fact from all but the royalty of Melromark. "Yes." The Dame answered now fidgeting. Sonya opened her eyes. " Okay then." She said and ordered her food. The knight looked surprised. Was she just accepting it all? Sonya looked at her with a difficult expression to read. If one could call what her face wore, an expression. The cat knight fidgeted nervously and Sonya simply smirked arrogantly. " I suppose it would be best to head that way. I have no objections." Sonya said with a slight grin. 'She should have just came out and said her intentions in the first place.' She thought before saying her thanks when the food arrived and began to eat.

Sioc was a young wolf demi-human, as race called the Volki. He had the ears and tail of a wolf and the body of a ten year old boy. His hair was gray, his eyes were an icy blue, and he had a bored face as he watched the 'adults' as they relayed news that he and the other children were selected to be candidates of being the new shield hero's companion. They explained that one of them would be chosen to fight along side and serve the hero. They would fight the calamity together. Sioc imagined some greasy guy who would be a total creep. He wasn't going to be chosen. Otherwise the children were to go about their daily activities as they always have. It was the next day a human in a gray dress carrying a strange shield on her back walked among them followed by a the royal knight Dianna.

Sioc paid the lady little mind until he caught a gimps of her eyes. She had blue eyes too. Maybe this human was interesting after all. She was whispering something something to the knight who was reassuring her about something. That's when one of the adults waved to the woman in gray. "Hail, shield hero!" A dog demi-human of a race called the Nui, hollered. The royal knight face palmed herself. It must have hurt considering she was wearing metal gauntlets.

Sioc then realized, the maiden in the gray dress that was now looking annoyed at the nui was in fact the shield hero. People started to swarm her. Some offering her praise others if she would be interested in their wares among other... things... Sioc simply watched her from a wall surrounding a raised garden with a tree in the center. "Please, praise me more..." the woman said very sarcastically as people continued to try and flatter her. Her face betrayed just how uncomfortable she was. "No, Seriously. Please stop. Look, I'm nothing to sing tales about just yet. I appreciate the kindness. Really, I do. But enough with the flattery. I'm nothing so special. " She said calmly hoping she wasn't being too harsh. The cat knight was giggling. The people of Rock Valley Kingdom looked at her. One such person approached her. He was an old bear like human, more beast than man. " You have come to fight the Calamity?" He asked gruffly as he towered over her. She nodded. " Yes I will." She answered.

The people of Rock Valley were all silent. The beast man before her sighed. " Many of us have lost sons and daughters, mothers and fathers. Family and friends, neighbors and strangers alike. Please fight well Shield Hero." The old bear man said. "You aren't something to flatter and sing about yet. So fight well and live Shield Maiden." And with that the old bear man lumbered off. It was like he had cast a spell with his presence alone. Everyone was silent and unsure.

Sonya sighed. She was still surrounded by confused half animal half human people called 'demi-humans collectively. She looked at them all wondering what would happen next until a large woman with strange markings on her body showed up. She was followed by two men just as equally large and covered in similar markings. Sonya would later learn that they were what was called the Sakamata and acted as peace keepers in Rock Valley. The female was busy shooing the crowd away while one of the males asked if there was any trouble to an older looking neko lady. The lady answered that everything was fine and that they were just in the middle of selection orientation for the new shield hero.

The Sakamata's reaction was... Unexpected, but pleasant. " Oh, this lass is the new Shield Hero? Well good luck to you." The female Sakamata said as she rapt a male nui in the rump with the butt of her harpoon that she carried for lingering too long. The two males bowed and left promptly after their leader. Sonya felt a little jealous. The harpoon carrying woman was gorgeous and obviously very strong! "Excuse me shield hero. The children are ready." The old cat woman said as she walked cane in hand to the group of children waiting not to far from her. She looked at them all. Why was she having to choose from children again? Lady Dianna informed her that demi-human children mature very quickly to match their level but she felt like children should enjoy being children. She suppressed a sigh of aggravation and looked at them all.

This wasn't going to do. None of them really stood out from the other. Oh sure, they were all unique but... That didn't help. " Do any of you have any skills. Fighting wise? Maybe someone who is really fast or has been studying towards learning magic?" She asked feeling stupid for it. But maybe they started training at a young age? Which was not the case. Instead the children all pointed to one individual who was not in their group, pretending he wasn't watching. A Volki boy who tried to not nervously fidget when the tall woman in a gray dress came over to him. " So, you know how to fight it seems?" She asked. Sioc glared at her then away. " Better then any of them, anyways." He said crossing his arms. " It isn't like the adults are going to be able to protect us forever." Sonya cocked her head. " I choose this one." She said pointing at Sioc. Sioc stared at her in disbelief. "Wait, what?" He asked the woman who patted his head. " Well, you are the only one seriously trying to train right? You WANT to fight the Calamity, right?" She asked smiling kindly. " If that is so, come with me."

Sioc looked at her mystified. She offered her hand which he took before looking away. " Are you sure Shield Hero?" Asked the old cat woman. Sonya nodded. " Then lets begin the ritual." She said and beckoned a puzzled Sonya to follow. They went inside a house where the boy was sat down and asked to remove his shirt. He complied looking bitterly at the plate of black inky liquid that was waiting on the table. " A bit of your blood please." The old lady prompted as she handed Sonya a knife. Sonya looked at them not understanding what exactly was going on. Why were they doing a ritual? Why did they need her blood? Lady Dianna walked in to assure her that everything was okay and that she would fully explain it later.

Sonya sighed and pricked her finger adding it to the plate of blood. She felt like she was being scammed. The blood was mixed with the ink and began to write some kind of symbol on his chest. Sonya lunged forward to stop the lady when she saw it was hurting Sioc but Lady Dianna stopped her. Sonya looked at the cat knight with disbelief. Lady Dianna tried to reassure her though. Soon the ritual was finished and what was called a slave crest was tattooed to Sioc's chest. The cat lady offered the rest of the liquid to Sonya's shield Surprisingly, or maybe it should be unsurprising at this point? It reacted. The slave shield sereis has been unlocked, however the series required her to be level twenty before any could be unlocked. Sonya waited until they were in an INN before she turned on the cat knight. " Explain!" She commanded feeling she had every right to know and be angry about it.

Lady Dianna held her hands up defensively. " Other than complete obedience it has been passed down in history that the previous shield hero owned slaves. Human, demi-human and monster alike. All of whom legend says, were far stronger than any who were not." The cat knight said. " Do not fret. Slavery is not a widely practiced institution anymore. Only for criminals and the heavily indebted... Or those who volunteer. Both Melromarc and Rock Valley has seen to that." The cat knight explained. Sioc had his arms crossed as he looked down at his feet. " Are you saying you don't want me?" He asked before looking up at Sonya. Sonya was taken back at first then sighed.. " Fine, fine. Yes, I want you... Umm, your name please?" She began but realized she was never told her new companion's name.

Sioc forced a smile. " My name is Sioc." The boy said. Sonya smiled and held out her hand. " My name is Sonya Brint." Sonya said shaking the boys hand when he finally grasped it. "I look forward to fighting along side you." Sioc smiled slightly for real. So this was the Hero he would be fighting the Calamity against?

* * *

Sioc is pronounced like the word Shook. Sioc is Gaelic for Frost.  
Volki is russian for wolves and is pronounced woolkee like the wool of a sheep and Key.  
Sakamata are an orca like demi-human race related to the Ruka who are Orca beastmen and very feared when they are in the sea.


	5. Chapter 5

So this was the lady he was fighting the Calamity with. Sioc watched as she energetically crushed an Eggy against a stump using her Shield Rush skill. Wasn't the Shield Hero suppose to be a defender or something? She was practically taking stuff on by herself! Well, she was using the terrain to her advantage... This was crazy! How in the world was she running around like a mad woman and killing things left and right?

Sioc sat on a rock watching her with disbelief. Sonya had given him a long sharpened stick because she refused any gifts the citizens of Rock Valley tried to push on her. She really seemed like an independent person. Did she really need him? Soon she came back covered in egg yolk and a lot of Orange and yellow balloons. She looked at Sioc sheepishly. " I got swarmed." She said laughing. Sioc backed away from her. They should be tearing her apart! Yet they were not. She wasn't even scratched. She just stunk. " SIOC! Will you please just kill these things already?!" She whined. Sioc sighed and started to stab the orange balloons. He realized that he had to put more force into it because his initial jabs just bounced off. It took him a few minutes to kill them all. He needed a proper weapon. He covered his nose and mouth. " Lady Brint, you stink." Sioc Said trying to stay away from her. Sonya scowled at him. " Well I guess it can't be helped." She said and went to a near by stream to bath. Sioc followed until she shooed him off threatening to make his cursed mark shock him if he peeped.

Sioc sat in camp after that. He didn't know what to think of this lady. She was... He glared at the fire. His master came back wearing a gray dress and caring several fish in her under armor. " Apparently these guys love egg yolk. Ugh..." She shuttered with disgust and gave Sioc her knife. " If you want dinner you need to gut and descale the fish. Sioc looked at her with protest but the severe glare in return told him not to argue.

Sioc looked at the fish. He had no idea what exactly she was asking him to do. Sonya soon returned after washing her armor off to find that Sioc had made no progress. ' Did I pick a city kid or... Ugh, I'm going to have to teach this kid everything!' She thought as she hung her armor up to dry. " Having trouble?" She asked trying to calm herself down. She should be fair. He probably wasn't shown how to survive on his own or anything really down to earth. Sioc looked at her and then the knife ant the fish. Sonya held her hand out. " Here let me show you so you can do it okay?" She offered. Sioc looked at her feeling embarrassed. Sonya just patted his head and took the knife from him. "First off you dig a hole. Second you carefully stab here. You slice down like this and pull the guts out after you cut the head off like this." She said as she showed him. Dropping the head and fish cuts into a shallow hole. Sioc looked at her fascinated. " Gross!" He said and took the knife from her. She stayed by him to make sure he did his first one right before she showed him how to descale, also with the knife.

Their hands were covered in scales, fish blood and gore but the fish were now cooking in the fire. They just needed to wash their hands and wait for the food to cook. " You go and wash your hands. I'll keep an eye on them." She said feeling a bit nostalgic. She remembered when her and her father skipped town and stayed in the mountains for a little while. It was fun. It was her turn to wash her hand and his to watch the fish. " A light brown color. Remember that!" She said and went to wash her hands. She looked at the fish swarming at a piece of yolk that sunk into the water, glad it wasn't her. It made her shutter and walk right back to the fish that was still cooking. She checked them and sighed that they were being slightly burnt.

She should start calling him John Snow and telling him that he knows nothing. She took the fish off the fire, said her thanks for the food and let Sioc eat. He grimaced. " Well of coarse it tastes burnt!" She chided and continued eating. She wasn't his mom. But then again... He probably didn't have one. She thought about it for a moment and decided she couldn't go easy on him... Nor should she be toooo hard on him.

"After dinner I'm going to teach you how to actually fight. I can't exactly do it myself-" She began but was cut of. " Yes you can! You were killing things left and right earlier! You.. You don't need me!" He said feeling useless. Sonya walked over to him grabbed him by the chin and glared directly into his eyes. " I can't fight alone. A few days before I came to Rock Valley a man forced his way into my bedroom. I ended up killing him. Sure, I guess you could say I can defend myself. But if I do I will just end up killing people instead of just taking them down. My punches are like pillows tied around my fists a few layers and my kicks are only so strong if they can connect where I want them. I don't want to kill people if I don't have to and I can't always be around rocks and trees and stuff for me to go and crush stuff with my shield." She said and let him go. " I'm happy I am not powerless but it is either one or the other. And the other isn't always reliable. So won't you fight for me?"

Sioc looked up at the woman standing there with the shield on her back. If all this was true then it really did make sense that she needed him. " I can't fight with a stick forever." He mumbled blushing. He was needed! Sonya held in a sigh of relief. One problem was dealt with. " Yeah... I need to buy you a proper weapon. We are on our way to Melromarc for that... To be honest the people of Rock Valley seem competent and nice... But a little too nice, some of them... And a few were a bit creepy." She said recalling a nui that kept asking her to marry him. She had nothing against Demi-humans but she didn't like people treating her special just as much as she didn't enjoy being treated like an outcast.

Sioc ate his fish quietly for a while while he mulled things over. He was needed. She couldn't fight all alone by herself. He thought about the cat knight. It was obvious that it was arranged that Sonya would have one of them chosen to fight along side her but what bothered him was that the cat knight left her afterwords. It seemed to bother Sonya as well. "I guess she had other important things she had to do." He said. Sonya nodded. " Yup. Finished with your fish yet?" She asked not wanting to talk about Lady Dianna. She had just been doing her duty. That was that. Sioc picked around the bones and set his scraps down. "Mm hm!" He chimed and got into his fighting stance. Sonya almost laughed. " Okay you. Both feet on the ground, you don't start a fight off by kicking something. " Sonya said and moved his legs a little apart arranging his stance with a stick. "I'm wearing a skirt so I can't really just show you how I would have my legs positioned but let me explain. You want to stand like you are ready to get pushed down so you can resist it."

She pushed him over. " Now get back up and get ready again." She said calmly. It took her five times for him to finally get it. " Bend your back slightly forward and put your arms up. No no, don't have them together like that! You want them off set, one further ahead than the other. Yes, like that!" She instructed. Sioc felt like he was being taught the Hengen Musou the way she started to drill him... Not that he learned how... He just watched and tried to copy the others he spied on who were learning it. It looked really tough!

It turned out Sonya no more lenient than the master that taught the Hengen Musou style, but learning her style of self defense was not as difficult it seemed. She showed him how to target a person's pressure points with bare hands. How to dislocate various parts of one's body and several places that, with enough pressure could take someone out of a fight. She made it clear that these were only to be used if he could not stop them other ways. She showed him how to grab someone's fingers and force them to the ground or how to manipulate someone painfully by crabbing their collarbone a certain way. There were a lot of painful places one could use while grappling. But all the while Sonya taught him, Sioc could not help but notice she was in pain any time she tried to demonstrate with enough force to hurt him.

The shield really did stop her from attacking. Otherwise she would have been a competent fighter, even without a weapon. She needed him. A feeling that was a mix of emotions came to him as he began to understand this. But these emotions, were not something he understood. He watched her as she sat down close to the fire and watched it burn ." Tomorrow will be throws. I can't actually throw you so you will have to figure it out for yourself." She said wishing she could have chosen one more child for him to be able to practice with. But that was not the case. She had to show him and hope he could figure it out. Sioc cocked his head. " How did you learn all this Brint-san?" Sioc asked. Sonya shook her head. " Just Sonya will do.. And I learned from my sensei. After I was attacked the first time in my world. I wanted to know how to defend myself without killing someone." She said.

Sioc looked impressed. Her master must have been someone who was very skilled. Sonya just simply stared at the fire. " You should climb up into the tree before you go to sleep. I guess I don't need to worry but when you wake up I'm going to need you to kill the balloons if they find me. And they will." Sonya said as she went back to eating. She laid her head down on her pillow shield and went to bed after that. Sioc thought it over. Maybe he could stay up and fight while she slept?

Sonya woke up not covered in balloons the next day. She looked around to see a pile of rubber scraps and a silly and exhausted looking volki boy sleeping up in a tree. She smiled figuring she should probably reward him for the favor. Maybe she wouldn't have to ever punish him if things went like this. But things never went as planned. With no vigilance things just went wild and disorderly. Things just got worse. Sonya would let him sleep for a while while she put her armor on and fixed breakfast.

Maybe she could even gather some things around the area and see if they would unlock new shields? Btw, she was now a level 15 and Sioc was a level 5. She looked impressed. He really had been fighting all night! Still, She needed to improve. He was now a member of her party so they shared experience. She didn't need to worry about falling behind. Just that he would eventually catch up to her. That is when she saw it. A BIG semi-transparent mean looking koi fish flying in the air. She looked at it and hoped it didn't see her. Until she realized it was being ridden by equally semi-transparent people. This was a strange world. She caught some fish, harvested some mushrooms and unlocked a few knew shields. A leaf shield that provided her a harvesting bonus. A mushroom shield that helped her with plant identification. Then there was the blue mush shield that allowed for simple compounding recipes. And finally the Green Mush Shield which equipment bonus allowed for Apprentice level compounding.

It seemed like she actually had to hunt, kill, and absorb the monsters in order for her to master the shields but otherwise she was able to unseal them by just harvesting material. She had to equip the shield to gain the equipment bonus... But if she mastered the shield she could... She smiled. That was when she found a rose growing near the stream. She carefully grabbed it by the stem instinctively avoiding the thorns before she cut it. The shield reacted. She looked around seeing a bush of roses and the quality of the rose she held being 'good'. Flowers withered after being picked. She decided to enjoy it's pleasant scent and attractive beauty before allowing her shield to absorb it. **Thorn series unsealed. Rose Shield unlocked. Equipment Bonus: 2+ attack, 3+ defense Skill: Thorn Aura.**

Sonya looked the skill over. It caused attacks to her body to deal damage to her opponent, even causing them minor lacerations and minor bleeding. It also stacked so if an opponent continued to attack her, they continued to suffer more bleeding. The 'minor bleeding' damage was a short period damaging debuff. She looked at her shield as she switched it to the Rose Shield. It reminded her of the Grass Shield except it had a red rose in the center and thorns poking out the edge of her shield like small green serrated teeth. "Pretty but not pleasant to touch." She said with a smirk as she switched her shield to her normal small shield and started to prune the bush so she could master her new shield.

By the time Sioc awoke she had unlocked three more plant based shields from the 'Plant' series in which the Thorn series was a sub-series of. There was the wood series which offered her woodcutting and gathering bonuses as well as the Bark series which added defense bonuses. And the root series which didn't offer her an attack or defense bonus but a food identification bonus for plants. Apparently this would help her with telling which plant was edible in this world. The Leaf Sub-series of the plant series offered her agility bonuses. The sticks apparently belonged to the wood series. Sonya sighed.

Then there was the stone series which was solidly in defense or mineral identification bonuses. She was hoping to eventually learn another attack skill but this was not going to be the case. She probably needed to level up more. She was back in camp roasting tuber roots when Sioc woke up. She decided he was not a good test subject for any new skills, but if he became injured or sick she could test compounding. She took a mental note that of the plant series, wood was material gathering, bark was defense, thorn was attack, leaf agility, and root was food identification. Mushrooms seemed to belong to a fungi sub-series involving identification and compounding related skills.

Finally there was the egg series from the Eggies. Culinary skill bonuses. She sighed at this one. Was this shield trying to make her into a house wife or something? That was something she would not settle for. Shield or no. Unless more games like the one she played game out. Then she might get too addicted to care. She felt the heavy regret of not killing Gwyn with the Pierce shield even more. She just had to study!

With breakfast cooked, eaten and a fire put out they began the routine of leveling followed by martial arts practice and more leveling. Lunch was made from edible flowers and water before going back to leveling and more martial arts practice. Sioc was wary of Sonya's Rose Shield which she now seemed to favor because she could inflict damage over time that would let her kill weak enemies without using Shield Rush. But it seemed to tire her when she had to use Shield Rush over and over again. They both made a note that she Thorn Aura cut her natural SP regeneration by a percentage while activated.

Still, it was useful. She just had to be aware of it's usage. She thought about it for a moment then smirked arrogantly. " I think I know how to use it." She said calmly when they took a break. Sioc looked at her questioningly. " Since Thorn Aura drains my SP a bit I can turn it off, let my SP recover and go back to using it again. It is like stamina regeneration. I just have to stop using it for a short period then I can go right back to it!" She said happily. Sioc looked at her puzzled. She sighed. " Think about it this way. You run for a while, you slow down to recover and so you can run some more without ever really stopping." She explained. Sioc looked at her as if she was touched in the head. 'Why not just stop all together and rest?' He asked himself mentally. Sioc's impression was this woman must have at some point did a lot of excising... " Actually, maybe we should do that as a part of training. Yes, I think that will help a lot! And when we get use to running normally we can add more weight to our packs. Rocks should do it!" She said to herself. Sioc looked at her horrified. Why couldn't this shield hero be a lazy one!

And the rest of the day was spent running a light jog to Melomarc's castle city.

* * *

Double update! Yay!


	6. Chapter 6

Sioc was exhausted when they finally got to Melromark capital city. But Sonya wasn't in the best of shape either. Too many months of lazily playing video games had taken its toll on her physical fitness. But she wasn't that out of shape! Still, she figured that she needed to practice. They both stood at the gate sweating and leaning against the walls, the gate guards looking concerned at first thinking that they ran because something was chasing them that they could not handle until she waved her arms trying to give them a negative on that. Then they began to feel that she might be a bit of a loon. Which she was fine with that part. Normal people in this world probably didn't run around for the fun of it. But whatever.

Sonya made sure they knew everything was fine once she caught her breath and then it was straight to the weapon store, and then the bath house... If they had one. She hoped they had bath houses in the city. With hot water. Nice hot water... She stopped a city guard on patrol. " Excuse me, this city has a bath house here correct?" She asked. The man looked at her as if she was asking an unusual question. " Lady Shield Hero, Yes, of course. But, I don't think you would want to use the public bath house... The Adventurer's guild has their own private bath house that the heroes are welcome to use." The guard answered looking at her with a bit of concern. "Yes?" She asked the guard. The guard looked at her a bit unsure of himself. " I uh. I am not sure really. Is it true that you.. Killed a burglar? " The guard asked. Sonya's smile became a more stoic look. " Do you mean the man that burst in my room with clear intent to rob me and force himself on me? Yes, I did the only thing I could do to stop him, and unfortunately it ended up killing him." She answered without hesitation.

The guard looked at her warily but nodded. She was not a person who was going to hide that she had killed people. The guard left promptly afterward and with that they made their way to the weapon store. She walked in and stepped into a corner seeing the store owners were very busy. Instead she looked down at Sioc who had been very silent until now. She patted his head and sighed. She wondered what kind of weapon would be best for him other than a crude stick with a sharpened point. Which didn't exactly work very well.

There were plenty of weapons to choose from, but she had no idea what to choose. Maybe a spear like weapon? Or maybe a javelin? The crowd didn't seem to dissipate at a reasonable amount of time so she shrugged and left. Maybe they could find something after they both had a bath. She asked for directions to the adventurer's guild and with that they were off. It wasn't long after they got to the guild paid for a room, stored what little they had in the room and locked it away that they were bathing in separate rooms. It was when Sonya walked into the women's bathing room where the heated bath was that she saw that Uta-san, the blond woman from earlier and several other women from the other heroes' parties were there. She felt silly for not taking note that one was an elf while two were neko demi-humans.

"Oh, Birinte-san! Uta-san called out and gave a little wave. Sonya waved back. Then there was that look that the blond girl gave. It wasn't the disgust she was expecting. Only concern. Sonya sighed and lowered herself into the bath. The blond girl also sighed. " Lady Brint, I would like to apologize for earlier. I over reacted." The blond girl said calmly not looking her in the eye. Apparently she was too embarrassed about it to make eye contact. Sonya gave a wave of indifference. " Don't worry about it. What happened happened. Just worry about the calamity coming up... Umm, any idea exactly when that is?" Sonya asked. It was the Elf woman who answered. " You can reaffirm this at the dragon hourglass at the Four Heroes' Church but it is in the next three weeks." The elf said. She was one of the rangers in Ishiku-san's party. "Yup! Best get a move on on leveling up Miss Shield Hero!" The female gunner from Uta-san's party chimed. She was a neko.

Uta-san looked like she was unsure of whether she should speak her mind or not. "Yes Uta-san?" Sonya asked calmly. Uta-san looked away looking embarrassed but shook her head thinking better to ask whatever she was going to ask. The Neko gunner from her party simply smiled mischievously. " So Miss Shield Hero, who is the kid with the pointy dog ears? He looks like he will be a keeper!" The neko gunner said. Sonya just shrugged her shoulders. " I have confidence that he'll be a good fighter. For now that is the most important thing." Sonya said bluntly. At first the women in the bath with her looked at her to see if she was serious but then her wording caught on.

There was a commotion from the male's bathroom next door. The sound of someone in pain. Sonya smirked. " Is that the spear hero?" Sonya asked. The elf nodded. Sonya Sighed. " I guess he found Sioc." She said with a shrug. The women in the bath stared at her. "What kind of monster is he?" The blond woman asked. Sonya giggled. " One I taught martial arts to from my world to. Good kid. I like him. Honest as far as I have seen. A bit silly though." She said happily. Uta-san looked at her nervous. "What are the martial arts from your world like Birinte-san?" Uta-san asked. Sonya sighed. " Nothing too extreme really. I mean each varies. I taught him the mixture my mater taught me. Mostly thoes that targets pressure points and focuses on dislocation, using a person's force against them, a few grappling moves, and some close quarters moves that mislead an opponent to thinking they have the advantage." She said smiling happily before she started to wet and comb her hair with her fingers.

The blond girl from the sword hero's party still looked at her the same way. "Again, what kind of monster is he?" She asked now very nervously. Sonya stood up in the water and crossed her arms over her chest. " How rude! He is a person you know! Last I checked he is a ten year old Volki boy." Sonya said starting to get annoyed. She looked down to see the vambrace shield that wrapped around her arm and sat back down annoyed focusing on it. The Neko gunner looked at her nervously. "A Volki? Oh gosh." She said nervously. Sonya looked at the Neko girl who was a mage in the spear hero's party. She looked just as nervous. " What's the matter? " Sonya asked starting to get worried. The nekos both shook their heads. "The Volki are really strong fighters!" The gunner said. "Almost as strong as the Hakuko race." The nervousness of her fellow women said she needed to make sure Sioc didn't kill anyone. So she got up, wrapped a towel around her body and went to go check up on the outside of the men's bathroom where Sioc with towel around his waist stood breathing heavily over an unconscious Ishiku-san. Sonya kept her eyes on the ceiling where she grabbed an extra towel that was among some waiting in the shelves of the hallway to throw over Ishiku-san's lower front before the steam conveniently disappeared.

" I take it he was giving you trouble Sioc?" Sonya asked keeping a hand on the front of her chest to keep her towel from unwrapping from around her. Sioc nodded and blushed, looking away. " Good then. You didn't kill him. So long as it is him or someone like him I don't mind. Just don't kill anyone okay?" She said and waved. " Now go back to taking your bath. I want you not smelling like a wet sweaty dog." She left back to the women's bath to soak leaving a puzzled Sioc.

The women looked at her worried when she came back with a smile on her face. " Oh no worries. There is a certain dummy who got his lights knocked out but everything fine. He will wake up... Eventually." She said happily as she folded her towel and began to soak her cares away for the next thirty minutes... Or until the women in the bath wanted to compare chest size. Sonya sighed. Of course Uta-san lost because she was a washboard and Sonya... Well She didn't want anything to do with their competition even though they kept trying to drag her into it. "C-cup! That's what she is!" The neko gunner chimed out before she had a bar of soap chucked at her head by a very annoyed Sonya. That ended the competition. She wondered why she was allowed to throw soap bars when she noticed the convenient skill, ' Bath Time Defense.' floating in her list of skills that allowed for such exceptions. She was liking this shield.

After they bathed, it was back to the weapon store. She looked down to the embarrassed Sioc who walked next to her. He had heard. He looked up at her and waved his arms in defense. " I swear! I didn't hear anything! I-I had water in my ears!" He tried to lie but Sonya simply bent down and hugged him with his head rested just underneath her chin. " It is okay. People are stupid and not very considerate. Don't worry about it, I'm not mad at you." She said, patting him on the head and started to continue walking her way to the weapon store. She was in her normal gray dress since she didn't feel like she needed her armor for anything.

She looked back to see Sioc walking a little behind looking up at her as if he was marveling that she could actually be a kind person. She rolled her eyes and continued on, her subordinate carrying his stick-spear resting on his shoulder like a lead soldier would. When they finally arrived at the weapon store the old sibling pair were sitting in chairs looking exhausted. " Just a moment. We just got through a crazy influx of customers." The man said as he looked up to see Sonya who sat down by the windowsill. "Just so long as we are next." She said and waited patiently. " Ah, shield lass. Welcome back." The old woman huffed and leaned back in her chair. The old man sighed and got up. " I see you have a lad with you. Is he your servant?" The man asked. Sonya nodded. " And my comrade. And student. A bit of a mix I guess." She said. The man walked closer to get a better look at the Volki boy who stood next to her.

The man sighed. " Been a while since I saw a volki warrior in my store. Well, I'm sure that will be what he will turn out to be. Right then. I am guessing you need a weapon for him eh?" The old man asked before he sighed and looked at his sister. Sonya nodded. " Also I have some things I was wanting to sell. I figured I probably wouldn't be able to sell them here, but if I could get an idea on where to sell them that would be great!" Sonya said happily. The old women sighed, walked up to Sonya and handed her a envelope. " We were asked to give you this by an well dressed gentlemen. He seemed interested in doing business with you." The old lady asked. The old man sighed. " If you would like, what is your budget? We can fit your lad while you attend to your business with the fellow." The old man asked. She thought about it. She had bought her armor for two gold and forty eight silver plus the two silver she had spent on lodging and meals so far minus the change she received back in copper... " I would like to say twenty five silver. I'm sure I will have to replace his weapon sooner than my armor so his gear and weapon doesn't need to have such a high budget. If I feel he needs better armor and weapons, I'll be back. But also, if you have clothes he can grow into, I would appreciate it." She said. The two shop owners nodded and they all waved farewell.

She sighed. Sioc did not look to happy with her going alone. She looked at the contents of the envelope. There was a short letter written by a Beloukas the Fifth requesting her audience at his store with a simple map enclosed that gave her directions. The only problem was, she couldn't read in this world's language and had to ask a passing citizen if they could read it for her. A woman about her age with her son looked at her nervously before nodding and accepting. She looked about for the landmarks that would lead her there and eventually found the circus like tent that was the destination. She stepped inside smelling the scent of monsters of many kinds. Some were not in perfect health. A gentlemen on the plump side carrying a cane and wearing a top hat with a black waist coat, white dress shirt, black bow tie and matching dress pants smiled at her pleasantly. But he gave her the creeps. It didn't help that he was wearing perfectly round shades or that his footwear looked like he was going to a funeral just as much as a party for nobles. His face wasn't cruel, but she had the vibe that he wasn't exactly the kindest person in the world. A businessman who was all to happy about what he sold. " Ah, welcome, welcome to my store Shield Hero! Or would you prefer Lady Brint?" The man said happily and politely.

Sonya smiled pleasantly. She had to. She just had to not look like she was very uncomfortable right now. And she was very uncomfortable right now. " Lady Brint please." She said simply. The man nodded. "It is pleasant to see you today. Shall we get down to business?" The man asked reading her look of disinterest with going through pleasantries. " This way please." He said leading her further into the tent and past a flap. He was a monster dealer as a front and a slave dealer as his main business, but he didn't seem to blatantly hide the fact either. " Ah yes, one of my most famous ancestors of this market did business with your predecessor and I was hoping to see if you would also be interested in my wares." Sonya didn't look at him when he said this. By wares he meant the people who she was sure were either sold into slavery or sentenced thus. She was sure that was the case. But these people all had an air of looking as if they had no hope or real will to live. She sighed. " Don't bother showing me your most expensive wear. Start with your least expensive and work your way up. Starting with those who are still in a decent enough condition for combat. I don't care how low their levels are." She said making up her mind.

The gentleman was taken back but laughed, which added to his creepy aura along with his bouncing over-jubilant gait. " Ah, this makes me happy. My, Lady Birinte, you know what you want indeed! This way!" He said excitedly leading her away from a group of humans and beastmen to more decrepit looking individuals. Some of them were still children. Beastmen, Demi-humans, humans, dwarves, transparent people, elves. She stopped when she saw a little girl who was chained at the neck to the cage. She wore a dirty white dressed and had yellow feline eyes. She looked like she was part snow leopard. " Ah, a good eye, but I am afraid you would not want that one in particular. She is very problematic. Very violent." He said with a sigh. " Most return her the same day. She is about as bad as any volki that we try to sell here." Sonya had a blank face that turned into a grin. " 'About' as you say? Is she in good health. Physically and mentally?" She asked seeing that her level was at ten. The man looked at her with caution. " No, Lady Birinti, she is perfectly fine but this one will-" He began but was cut off. " How much for her?" She asked calmly, and very firmly. The gentlmen Beloukas the Fifth as she recalled looked at her nervously. " Lady Birinte, No. I mean, one gold and ten silver..." He said when she turned to him with a wide grin. " I happen to have a volki boy that I think would be able to manage a Hakuro his level if he had to. And I my self don't feel like I need to worry." She responded as she pulled out the single gold coin she had left and ten silver. "Please do the ritual for her."

It was moments later that the little girl followed behind her. " SO, shall we go get you washed up, a new set of clothes and a full stomach?" Sonya asked looking down to a girl that looked almost about Sioc's age. The girl looked up at her surprised. "What, you think I'm going to let you go walking around in your condition? Your dress needs replacing, you stink, and need I mention the dead ends on your hair need trimming?" She asked pointing out her almost black hair which was dirty and the split ends. The look on the girl's face said she thought the woman in the gray dress carrying a shield was weird, if not crazy. "Is it true that you have a volki?" She asked when they got to a clothing store to buy her a blue tunic and shorts to go along with it. She knew the girl was a demi-human so the tunic would fit her as she matured. As well as the shorts, which were a simple beige. That meant they were oversized, bunched up and required a belt or two to stay on. Sonya nodded finally after paying and leaving. Despite what the Slave dealer said, the Snow leopard girl was surprisingly complaint. " His name is Sioc. Does that name mean anything to you?" Sonya asked leading her to the Adventure's Guild to get washed up. "No. Well, He was apart of my village. But I didn't know him." She said. Getting her to undress meant she also had to undress. She frowned at the scars on her back. She had been whipped.

"I don't mean to be rude, but by chance did you give the people who did this to you hell?" Sonya asked as she scrubbed the girls back. She received an angry look. " Yes. I did." the girl said flatly. Sonya smiled which made her madder. " Good!" Sonya said happily. " My name is Sonya Brint, by the way. I'm the Hero of the Shield. And it is nice to meet you." The snow leopard girl looked at her surprised and turned around to face a woman with a towel wrapped around her and a leather vambrace with a large green jewel in the middle. Cautious yellow eyes looked up at cheerful honest blue eyes. The woman who sat now in front of this girl looked plain to her. But made her smile. " My name is Siorradh." She said smiling before looking turning back with a smile.

Sonya knew Sioc would not be exactly happy with the fact that for starters, he was out numbered. And two, Siorradh did not let him come close to Sonya without giving him a glare in warning. He was wearing almost the same clothes as the snow leopard girl except their colors were in reverse and he wore baggy pants. Sonya sighed knowing they would end up as rivals as she bought him a short spear and her a dagger. Both were iron and would need replacing eventually. Things would be getting very interesting.

* * *

Siorradh means Breeze. It is pronounced Sheer-rah. Like Shira.  
Siorradh is a Sneg-Koshka which is a Snow leopard Demi Human. It is russian for Snow Cat. The Sneg-Koshka can be used both singular and plural as Volki is.


	7. Chapter 7

By the time they all reached level 15 Sonya has found that her subordinates REALLY ate a hole in her wallet if she didn't make them hunt and fish. Siorradh and Sioc's bodies were now matured to that of teenagers. Sioc still had a bit of room to grow, while Siorradh had grown up rather tall and was working on filling out. She was about as tall as Sonya was while Sioc only came to her nose, minus his ears. They two both proved very early to be very loyal and compliant to Sonya, but they fought like cats and dogs. Siorradh was swift, agile and cunning. Sioc was not. But he was strong and had a great deal of stamina. He was also very honest. In fact, Sioc could easily out run Siorradh in a distance race. But as was her nature, she was faster in shorter bursts.

Sonya had them both beat on stamina, Strength, and cunning. Her logic helped her earn a reputation for being able to solve problems very quickly, while her strength helped give her comrades cover when they needed to regroup and take down whatever monster they where commissioned to slay. Although some of these Sonya refused to slay. Namely a Dragon that she instead had a pleasant conversation with before trying to smooth things over with the villagers before returning the commission fees. Or a problematic Philorial Queen who just wanted to retire... And was very hungry. Sonya did not want to fight the Hero of the Carriage anyways. But Sonya didn't bother reporting who she was. Only that the problem was solved after a long and tiresome effort of trying to negotiate with the two queens who stubbornly refused to co-operate. She instead solved the problem by tricking the successor of the current Queen of all Philorials that there was an awesome place with wonderful fruit in a far away island while the current Queen of all Philorials was told that her successor needed to go on a quest of self discover and would also need to think it all over.

Sonya didn't like lying but she was sure this would solve the issue for a while. What she didn't know was that she would keep the two away from each other for the next five hundred years.

It was two days from the next Calamity and Sonya had unsealed and mastered a countless number of shields. The ones she was most partial to now was the Rope Shield, the Pipe Shield, the Soap Stone Shield, and The Wall Tower Shield. Each shield gave her different abilities. The Rope shield allowed her to use an ability called Air Strike, which allowed her to place a shield in front of her and at a certain angle and distance. It wasn't exactly large but it did have its uses. Then there was the pipe shield, which gave her a skill called 'Shield Prison'. The skill allowed her to trap or protect an individual with a prison made of shields and chains. It could only take so much wailing on, but it lasted about a minute.

What bothered her was when she finally got the Wall Tower Shield, which was due to a new skill she recently unlocked called, 'Weapon Copy.' Each shield in the main 'Copy Series' had to be mastered a different way from the first she unsealed. Apparently through use since they operated through efficiency levels, which were now applied to all shields she had previously mastered. And apparently each level mastered gave her a bigger bonus similar to when she first masters a shield... Which meant she needed to train and practice with each shield... But it was the different stats that appeared in her profile that worried her. Poise, which was a stat gained through armor. Her armor surprisingly gave her a little versus what she expected, which was none at all.

She had fifty Poise under her stats. Each of her shields had a varying stability stat. The larger and heavier, the more stability. But also the more stamina they drained. Which was another thing. Her stamina was now in a measurable bar. She was happy to say it was very large compared to her subordinates, and regenerated at a quick rate when she rested compared to her SP which was drained by her skills. Her MP didn't really matter since she didn't use magic yet. Her resistance was rather high. Having absorbed and mastered the Fire Plant shield and Charcoal shield, she had a decent fire resistance. She worried about the magic and lightning resistances as well as various other elemental stats which she couldn't read yet because they were unavailable.

Then there was her bleed, poison, toxic and curse resistances. All but poison and bleeding were low or nonexistent while bleeding was high and her poison was about average. Her physical resistance to damage was something she could boast about. It was VERY high. Her attack was very meager, and her strength and dexterity was high. Her magically oriented knowledge was low. She wondered why it was specific or a measurement at all next to her attunement which was a 1. In all, what made her worry was because it all looked all too familiar despite the complexities they added. She remembered all too well where she saw them too. And it made her giddy and nervous as she read what her most recent favorited shield to use was. The Wall Tower Shield allowed her to use a skill called, 'Shield Wall'. The skill allowed non-legendary shields to 'lock' together with the Legendary shield to pool armor stats and shield stats. Specifically, defense 50% plus each shield's base defense and resistances, Stability 75% increase plus each shield's base stat, and poise was increased 50% plus each armor's full set base poise stat.

It made logical sense as complicated as it might sound. Each shield combined allowed to combined each person's stat and increased by a percentage plus the pool of stats because each person was supporting one another. There was a downside as well. It didn't pool stamina. Which meant if one person failed, their shield could easily be knocked aside or not be of use. Then that stat increase would be cut by who ever fell. This also made sense. Because that shield would no longer support the others. So Sonya was always the one to take the brunt of the force. She had the most stamina.

Two days till the next Calamity. And the thing that weighed down on her mind was what happened during the last calamity. Neither Sioc or Siorradh could answer because they were hid away in the cellars of their homes. What they did know was very few people survived.

So there was only one person she could start asking that she knew may know about what went on with another nation. The King. She felt stupid at first that she didn't ask around but no one seemed to know or be willing to answer her. So she needed to go to the one person she knew who would. Who had to.

Sonya waited at the gate to the castle while the guards made her wait until the page they sent could give her request for audience, and come back with an answer. She asked them personally about the calamity, and all they could say was that it took a lot of lives, and that the next would happen in Melromarc. Sonya sighed while Siorradh sat next to her and Sioc was forced to sit on the sneg-koshka's other side looking concerned. " Well it was worth a shot." She said calmly. Sioc finally growled and elbowed Siorradh, who tried to stop him from getting up. Sioc knelt down in front of Sonya. " Sonya-San, please. Why are you so worried? What is it that is bothering you?" He asked, his ears flat and face filled with concern.

Sonya sighed. " Here is as best a place as any I guess. I fear that what this calamity is is similar if not identical to the world of a game I once played. I very grim and bleak world with nightmarish creatures and enemies of the likes you would not wish to dream. A game I played that my character died over and over countless times for me to learn how to defeat these enemies and navigate this deadly world. A world that although I loved to play in because of its unforgiving nature and the challenge it presented, I do not want to come to life..."

She looked at the guards with an apologetic gaze as they listened. " And that is why I must see the King. To confirm whether my fears are groundless or true." She said calmly. Siorradh leaned back after shooting Sioc a glare that said she would get him. " So why do you also sound excited?" The snow cat girl asked. Sonya laughed. It wasn't something she could hide. " Most characters in the story of that world are unhinged. Most players are either extremely patient, persistent, or become slightly eccentric. I will leave you to guess the category I belong in." She said almost jokingly. " I grew to love that world. It was a challenge that the faint of heart would not take up. Not even if it was just a game where you lost nothing in real life but the time you play it. Because that game was oh so frustrating. A challenge that's best reward was success and moving forward. That's hook is the struggle in a hellish world. Uncovering a mystery that is so vaguely present."

Sonya leaned back against the wall and laughed before hugging herself while she began to shutter in a mix of mirth and dread. " And that world I hope does not come to be in this one. Because as much as I would have loved to have completed the quest. To see it to its end... I know that if that quest became real, I would only get one chance. I would only get to live and die once. Or, if that is not the case. I would be stuck in a cycle where I would be slowly driven mad. And it wouldn't just be a game I could walk away from when I got frustrated or had to go back to my regular life. It would be a prison called hell. In the guise of a place called Lordran."

The weight of her words weighed down upon those present. She stood up and smiled. " Well, if it is the case, there is a few things to lighten things up. I know how to complete the quest and deal with most of the enemies. And that world has a LOT of exploits. To this world has a much better chance to fight back if that world does come." She said cheerfully. Sioc stared at her. He wasn't sure whether to shake his head, laugh, smile, feel afraid. He just stared at her unsure. Siorradh simply shrugged her shoulders. " Whatever happens, I'll just stab whatever in the back before it tries to get to you." The younger girl said as she placed a hand on her dagger. Sioc stood up and nodded. " And I'll stand with you and drive through the heart of whatever charges towards you with ill intent." Sioc said with determination. Sonya laughed and patted the two both on the head. " Thank you. Both of you two. But really, stop trying to out do each other." She said and looked at the two awkwardly when they finally had a look of agreement shared on their faces. "Nope!" The Volki boy and Sneg-Koshka Girl said in unison.

Sonya sighed. She sighed then giggled.

It wasn't much longer when the page boy finally arrived to announce that the king would see them. Sonya patted the little nui boy on the head before he ran off. Sioc glared after him while Siorradh simply grinned at Sioc's annoyance. They soon arrived in the audience hall where the King sat on his throne looking with a frown at the empty throne next to his. He sighed before turning his gaze to the woman who stood before hims giving him a curtsey while her subordinates bowed. "So, Lady Brint. What may I ask is the reason you seek audience with me?" The king asked as he leaned forward with his hands resting on his cane.

Sonya sighed. " I want to confirm something. But to do that I must ask you about the first calamity that struck a northern nation." She said and sat down when the king ordered his servants to get them stools. The king frowned as he recalled the report. " A fissure opened up and from what witnesses described, great big stone dragons entered our world from them. They seemed invulnerable to just about anything even our strongest warriors could attack them with. But it was discovered in a last ditch effort to ward them off that they are weak to lightning. The quickly were brought down one after another to shatter upon the land and become dust and scales. But not before they reeked the havoc they did. They destroyed an entire nation alone. These great stone dragons. And now, we such a fissure readying to open itself upon this nation." The king said and looked at Sonya with concern. " Do you know something I do not?"

Sonya looked down at her hands. Then to her Vambrace Shield she wore for convenience. " Only if these dragons breathed fire and pure, elementaless magic. And if these dragons were taller than any castle, were vulnerable to lightning and dark magic. I may know something that is both terrible news, but has some ray of hope to it." She said. The king looked at her with annoyance but continued to be patient with the shield hero. She was requesting knowledge. But she made it clear. If she was right, it meant a looming doom and a ray of hope. " That is the case." The King said clearly and slowly.

Sonya closed her eyes feeling regretful for saying what she must to the king of a nation that had treated her so well. Of a world she was beginning to love dearly. " Then if what I fear is coming is, in fact what is coming... This world is one I am very familiar with. And is a world of the likes that is brimming with creatures of pain, death and destruction." She said simply as she stood up. And curtseyed. The king stood up with anger. " Then what is the ray of hope?" He demanded. Sonya smiled sadly. "I'm very familiar with that hellish world."

The king sat down looking lost for words but waved for her to have a seat. " Please explain yourself." He asked politely. And so Sonya did. She explained that the dragons that invaded this world were called the Everlasting Dragons. Because it was thought that they were immortal and could not die. And that was the case, because the king confirmed that the scales were in fact still very much alive but could not act on anything themselves. The consciousness of the dragons themselves had been destroyed.

Next Sonya explained the story of the game she played and how it lead up to the beginning before she started the quest. She explained how there were god like beings of a fire like 'soul' called the First Flame. She explained that in the story of this world how these lords destroyed the dragons. She also explained how their power began to wane. How they placed a curse on some of the living humans that would cause them to become 'undead.' Beings who could not truly die and were caught in cycle of death and rebirth that drove them mad little by little. Some faster than others. And how the hero of this story was an undead that was called the 'chosen undead' was in fact an undead like many others that persisted through the many interlocking words that each undead were apart of. And that the hero of the story was simply the one who succeeded where the rest failed.

She explained some of the horrors of the world and ended with what began her suspicions. The king was quite for a moment, as if reading something invisible in front of him before he gave a grim nod. " On a good note, that world called Lordran is an easily exploitable one. As powerful at each enemy is, they all have their weaknesses." She said simply. The king sighed. " I fear it is not going to be as easy as you think... But I hope you are right. Pass this information to the other Heroes and begin planning." He ordered. Sonya nodded but lingered after she was dismissed. " Your majesty, do you know exactly where the fissure will occur?" Sonya asked. The King looked at her and beckoned her forward as he had a page retrieve a map of Melromark. " In the general area, here." He pointed. It was a wide area.

Sonya nodded and looked the man in the eyes. " Please. Can I beg that the soldiers and knights stationed in that area be ordered to do what is necessary if things turn out for the worse?" She asked calmly. The king looked at her with a very serious expression. " Which is, to be clear?" The king asked. Sonya smiled sadly. " Quarantine and investigate the area. Make sure the people are not cursed or affected in any way. If they are... Separate them. Have them tasked with fighting the Calamities to come maybe. If this curse I know does afflict them... They could become powerful allies... And just as equally powerful enemies if they loose themselves to madness. I don't exactly know how to stop such a curse... But... I know what it does. And I only have an idea of what can be done." She answered leaving the king to ponder over what she said.

Sioc and Siorradh looked at her with blank expressions. Once she was far enough from the castle she hugged them both close to her. And she cried. She was scared, worried, angry and sad. And she felt like a monster now, more than ever. She hugged them tightly and cried as she fell to her knees. It hurt so much, the pain that grew. The fear of the madness that was coming. The Calamity. She didn't care about the fact that people were staring. People were whispering. She cried.

But of the few things that were comforting, the greatest were the two that were hugging her back.

* * *

And things turn really Dark. Punny, and bad. I know. I just had to!

I made this Fan Fiction into a cross over between 'Rise Of The Shield Hero' and 'Dark Souls' because of Sonya and how unique of a character she is turning out for me. She is this woman who grew up with a complicated and troubled past and became a nerd. A person who was confident in herself. But she is still human.

She gets pulled into this world and like Noafumi, she is a bit different from the others. Like Naofumi unfortunate things happen and she has to work around them. A bit eccentric in ways, like Naofumi. But She is wise in her own way and she really does just roll with things with out really blaming her hardships on the world she is in. She understands what her actions will do and prepares for the consequences. She didn't have everything just handed to her all the time. How she is very different from Naofumi I wanted to make very clear to my readers not just by her stats and abilities... But as the person that she is.

But then there is Dark Souls. I imagine her and her love for this game, and how often she leans her video game logic onto this game. How she fights outside of what her world taught her and how she can not except being powerless. How she persists against adversity that seems sooo frustratingly impossible. She is very different from Naofumi.

But than I came to the realization that she needed a real adversity. One that wasn't copying and pasting ROTSH. One that she and I were familiar with. The kingdom of Lordran. And I wanted this chapter to start off like it had a bit of that feel goodness there. I wanted to have the previous chapters hint at the possibility of things being off. And then as this chapter goes on the bombshell starts to fall and you get that heavy realization that things are really turning bad. Bad in a way that someone who plays Dark Souls can only imagine if they imagined living in that world. Or that world coming to theirs.

And here is where I wanted to take this story. Where Sonya is who she is. The New Shield Hero. And a human being.


	8. Chapter 8

Sonya had written several letters to send to the other heroes about what was going down. She explained in them what precautions needed to be taken and why. The entirety of what she had said to the king she was sharing with her fellow heroes. It wasn't long before they met up the day before the calamity began, in her room at the Adventure guild's inn.  
"Wait. Are you saying-" Ishiku-San began but got smacked upside the head by Arashi-San.

"We don't have time for this. We are here to get a battle strategy." Arashi-San said. "Not waste time."  
Sonya nodded giving her thanks before she took a deep breath.  
" If we can expect smaller minion based enemies from the Calamity, I think it is safe to assume what form they will take. That said, it would be wise to parry aside their weapons and go for the offensive afterwords. Uta-san, you only need your melee oriented comrades to do such while you and other ranged oriented comrades focus on shooting them down. Preferably in the head. I don't know how strong each will be, but if we are lucky, they won't be too difficult. So enemy types. We can expect the boss, which is something I can handle. The other units will defer." Sonya said.

"Take note how decrepit they look. How much armor they are wearing. Take very careful note on their behavior. Keep in mind that there are those who will charge head on and others who will hesitate or stay back. The ones who hesitate and have a more refined style of fighting are far more dangerous in the lower class enemies. All of them, however should be taken serious. Otherwise you might get stabbed in the back and die. Other than that, there might be undead rats and they are poisonous. Be careful, not carefree. Now that is it with the lower class enemies. Let's move on to the knight class. This class is by far, the most dangerous. It is mostly because they range between just above the lower class, to fighting bosses and then some. Likely, you might face knights with blackened armor and horned helms. They will often carry just as blackened weapons and a narrow pointed kite shield. These knights have very high fire resistance but low magic resistance. Getting them to focus on one person while another stabs them in the back might be the best way to take them down... But these knights vary upon what arms they carry. If they have a huge sword... Shields up. Arashi-san and Ishiku-san, don't try to fight these recklessly because they are VERY strong. As for any other knight class... I don't expect we will meet them but treat them doubly as threatening as the black knights. Many have been known to one hit kill. So dodging and blocking and knowing when to do one or the other is the key to staying alive." Sonya said finishing up.

Ishiku-san glared at Sonya. " And why are you the one designated to fight the boss?" Ishiku-san yelled.  
Sonya sighed. " Because I am the one who knows them the best. I need the three of you and your parties to try to contain and prevent as much damage as possible. Try to keep the enemies from reaching the populace. If we can defeat this calamity it may not be the end of the troubles if the curse spreads." Sonya said calmly.  
Uta-san looked at Sonya with a hesitant look but she smacked the cheeks of her face, took a deep breath and looked Sonya dead in the eyes. " Is it really necessary to quarantine the people of this world Sonya-san? Wouldn't that cause alienation? Even if it is just the area the fissure opens up in?" Uta-San asked.

Sonya nodded sadly. " The Dark Sign renders the living into undead. If they go Hollow, they can go mad. If they go mad, they will kill their own loved ones out of hunger for souls and humanity. I hope it doesn't come to pass. I hope I am wrong. But it is a precaution we all have to take. I asked you all to check yourselves as well to make sure you don't have a black circle with a orange ring surrounding it. I hope it remains thus." Sonya said.  
Ishiku-san glared at her even angrier. " How can you do this to people!?" He yelled.  
Sioc got in his way. " Do you think she LIKES this happening? Do you think she WANTS this to be afflicted on innocent people? Do you think she doesn't feel how difficult it is to make these decisions? This isn't a game! She said it herself! You die once and that is it. Or worse if you have that curse and little by little you loose who you are! Do you think she wants that for anyone?" Sioc yelled back.

Arashi-san leaned against the door sill. "I figure it must have been a mix of feelings for her. Her beloved game coming to real life and an adventure that awaits, but worse of all, the hell it brings on everyone else." Arashi-San said calmly " I'm sure she doesn't want anyone to suffer, but but even she can't deny that she is looking forward to fighting and maybe having a little fun."

Siorradh was the one to counter him with her own retort. " Can you deny that going into battle doesn't have its own joy? Can you deny that you don't feel truly alive when you are fighting for your life?" She asked and watched the Sword Hero look away.  
Uta-san stood up and sighed. " I guess this is just the best that can be done." Uta-San said.  
Sonya shrugged. " If there IS any loot to take from the boss I'll hold up on claiming any of it. Unless there is some timer that will make the loot vanish if I don't.. No helping that... Sorry." She said intending it as a joke, knowing full well that that shouldn't be the case. But surprisingly the others just nodded understandingly.  
" Even if it was meant to be a joke Birinte-san, that at least is not something we can fault anyone for." Arashi-san said then glared at Ishiku-san before waving farewell. " See you on the battlefield." Uta-san simply bowed and left while Ishiku-san lingered.  
" You really think things are going to turn seriously bad don't you?" He asked feeling like it was all her fault.

Sonya just sat down on her bed. " I really didn't want it to turn this bad. But life has always had a habit of throwing things at me that are not always so pleasant and sun shiny. So I had to find my own sun shine at times." She said simply and watched him leave before Sioc kicked the door closed.

Siorradh giggled and shook her head. " Sonya-san, do we really have to rely on those people?" The Snow cat girl asked.  
Sonya sighed. " Yes. We do. We can't be everywhere at once and I don't want to burden them with fighting an opponent I am more prepared for than they are." Sonya said. Sioc sighed and walked over to his bed. There were three in the room.  
" It is just that they seem so ungrateful." He grumbled. Sonya laughed a little.  
" Who would be grateful for bad news?" She asked and shook her head. " I won't know what boss we will be fighting but stay behind me until we encounter it okay?" She asked looking at them both seriously.  
"My shield and dagger are ours." Siorradh said smiling. Sioc nodded and gave a salute before plopping on his bed.  
" Why did you two have to grow up so fast?" Sonya complained before giggling. " Good night." She said and went to sleep after blowing out the candle.

She heard Siorradh bar the door and murmur a death threat to Sioc about him staying in HIS bed. Before Siorradh went to hers. Sonya giggled one last time before falling asleep.

The next day Sonya was wearing her usual Chimera armor while Siorradh sat to her left and Sioc sat to the snow cat girl's left as usual. They all sat on a bench staring at the Dragon Hourglass as the other heroes and their parties arrived. Siorradh was busy doing maintenance on her dagger while checking on its balance while Sioc snoozed with his spear resting against his shoulder. Both of the two had their shields strapped to their backs. Sonya smirked when she saw Ishiku-San eying Siorradh nervously. She would have made an effort to keep the Sneg-koshka around if she wasn't always shadowing her to begin with. The cat trying to monopolize her attention sometimes became annoying. But it wasn't like her and Sioc's rivalry caused them to be less productive. The exact opposite. She was just glad the girl wasn't outright cruel to the Volki boy.

She checked on the timer. They had five minutes. She contented herself with watching the numbers slowly tick by before her mind drifted on what they would be eating for dinner if they could. She wondered how big the invasion would be. Would it be practically endless? She wondered. She also wondered if this world had any form of pizza. She imagined what a slice of pizza would be like if she could get a hold of a slice... Or would she have to make it? Could she make it? She looked at her culinary level which was a 5. She sighed. She reminded herself that she NEEDED to practice using her shields so she could level their proficiency. But then her mind drifted back to pizza and the scent she missed so much... Even if she hadn't been able to afford it in a while.

That was when she noticed Siorradh was staring at her. " You are drooling Sonya-Sama." The cat girl said before laughing and getting up so Sioc would fall over. Sonya looked at her with a blank expression when Siorradh used the sleeve of Sioc's tunic to wipe Sonya's mouth. When the Volki finally realized what the Sneg-koshka did Sonya was laughing as she watched Sioc chase after the Siorradh. It was thirty seconds to go before she waved them over. She was glad she had them to cheer her up.

Although their antics did not amuse the others.

Ten...Nine... Eight..Seven...

Sonya Hugged the two close, took a deep breath, closed her eyes. By the time she exhaled they had been warped to an empty field. It felt like a sudden jerk of her body and she managed to land on her feet. Then she heard a loud cracking when she wondered where the fissure would be. The sky turned a dark red as she looked off to her right as cracks in the sky began to form. Then a hole opened up and the chaos began. Her and the others gave a nod. One of the gunners fired a flare into the air while the rest of them ran towards the fissure. Luckily there were no villages near by so Sonya left the others to fight what looked like a bunch of hollow soldiers and and plain old hollows. It was hard to tell the difference because they both moved in a shambling manner, carried broken weapons. She guessed the only difference was those that had armor on also had broken shields. But that wasn't important. She switched to her Tall Wall Shield and with the help of Sioc and Siorradh, began to blow through the hordes of undead that came out of the fissure.

That was when they finally found IT. It took the form of a very fat draconic demon with a huge hammer made out of ancient blackened wood. The green scales only added to the sickeningly ugly look that the lumbering demon had. It must have been three stories tall and had a spine like spikes going down its back as well as cresting its head. It had wings that seemed far to small for it to fly. It was very ugly and IT had spotted them. " Yeah, Shield Hero... You can have that thing." Ishiku-san said as he retreated to the rest of his comrades. Sonya glanced back at the retreating spear hero with annoyance realizing he had tried to go against the plan... It didn't matter. She needed to focus on the main threat.

"Awww! Aren't you lovely! I am so happy to see you!" Sonya said as she raised her shield to receive the powerful blow that forced her sliding backwards. She only ended up charging forward while she ignored the weird looks her subordinates gave her.

Yes, she was a little crazy.

" Sioc, Siorradh! Go and attack it from behind! If it starts to fly, retreat a little ways and don't let it land on top of you! I'll keep it busy as best as I can!" She said to them just above the clamor before receiving another blow from the huge creature's hammer.

It was after this that the demi-humans both gave her a nod and pincered around the creature's reach to attack from behind. " Is that the best you can do?" She taunted holding her arms spread out and up in the air mockingly before she quickly hid back behind her shield again. She laughed like a maniac as the creature wailed on her. She felt so alive and relieved! At least, she hoped this was the second wave's boss. It struck again and again, and each time it suffered damage from Sonya's thorn aura. She noticed it then. The health bar above its head. It was slowly depleting and once Sioc and Siorradh started attacking its hindquarters its Hp really started to drop down. But she had to keep its attention on her.

" Shield Rush!" She yelled after turning her Thorn Aura off. She plowed into it and bounced off doing very little damage but she was keeping its attention. " Shield Prison!" She yelled and caged herself while it wailed on her cage for the next minute. The battle lasted five minutes before she finally heard the gratifying wail of it finally dying. But it didn't burst into a bunch of fluttering light. It just simply died and fell onto its stomache. Sioc had finished it off after its legs had given out with a stab to the back of its neck.

Sonya sighed. As she watched the fissure close. Until a black knight charged at her and hit her with the same amount of force that the demon before had. Siorradh leaped onto its back and started to stab it in the gaps of its armor over and over again until it turned around only for Sioc to stab it through the head, just underneath its jaw.

She sighed. She thought it was over... Until it got back up. But it didn't get a chance to do more than that before Sioc wrenched its sword from the knight's grasp and beheaded it. Sonya shook her head. They were far tougher than she imagined. Siorradh hissed.  
" What are these things!" She said glaring at the dead black knight.  
" Undead." Sonya answered simply. The others did not fair as well as she had hoped. They looked ragged. But the undead were taken down.  
" So then, you have to behead them to kill them for good." She said calmly. The other heroes stared at her. She and her party were the only ones NOT covered in blood. But that was not the end. Sonya was wrong. They were forced into one group when the 'undead' started to get right back up after a brief pause. They all stood now as if they received no true damage to their bodies.

Sonya stared wide eyed. She saw one charging at her, everyone too stunned to do anything. Time just seemed to slow down for her though. She grabbed and wrenched the broken sword out of the hand of an undead warrior and stabbed it with its own sword through its chest. It hurt. It hurt like hell but it wasn't the shield's doing this time. It was because her hands had been engulfed in a white fire as the undead burned. She stared at it in fear as the fire spread from one undead to another. She was too afraid to let go. The fire engulfed everyone in bright white flames. In flames that turned from white to blue before finally dying down. Sonya stared at her hands. They were only slightly burnt but the weapon in her hand had been blowing red the whole time before it disintegrated. A message popped up in front of her. 'Sword hilt recognized as spell ingredient. Sword hilt used for spell, Purge.'

Sonya looked around the area. It was covered in ash and bits of severely burnt bones and pieces of melted metal armor.

Then the timer appeared on her screen as: 045:23:59:59 and started to count down by seconds.  
Sonya laughed painful before sitting down. " So, did anyone die?" She asked hoping the answer was no as she switched her shield to its vambrace form and hugged her arms close to her. They really did hurt. Sioc and Siorradh eventually snapped out of their stupor to began asking if Sonya was okay, which she was not.

It was found later on that the burns reached up to the middle of her forearms and the inside of her arms in that region were just as damaged. The spell 'Purge' was a nasty one that required a weapon from the enemy to preform. Sonya not knowing any better could have let go and avoided the damage she sustained. But otherwise she would be fine with a couple days recovery.

The damage wasn't too severe.

Ishiku-sand spat on the ground. " And those bastards can stay down!" He muttered.


	9. Chapter 9

The women who were part of the other heroes' parties were not happy with her. They were sent to a tent and made to strip down while a female physician examined them. The same went for the men in another tent with a male physician. No one had the dark sign and Sonya's wounds were wrapped in bandages. Her burns being made by a type of magic fire that healing magic did nothing to help. She had to heal normally.

But that was fine with her. She still had complete function to her arms. They were just in pain. After the examination was over the king had summoned them to the castle to report the battle. A few injuries but none too severe. The few things anyone could loot weren't exactly worth much. Even Sioc's black knight sword was 'purged.'  
Sonya sighed. " Ah Dark Souls. How cruel of you." She muttered while the king stared at her. White bandages wrapped here arms from the middle of her forearms down while she wore her gray dress.

" So then. What do we know about the enemy?" the king asked having everyone sit at a series of long tables with the heroes being the closest to them.  
Arashi-san scratched his chin as he pondered. " All of the enemies are difficult to kill and they reanimate themselves if you don't use the 'purge' spell... I'm not exactly sure how it is done though." The sword hero said as he glanced at Sonya. Sonya simply cradled her arms.  
"It seems you must use one of their world's weapons against them... However I think they must be defeated once before we are allowed to activate the spell." Uta-san offered.  
Ishiku-san shrugged. " They aren't exactly hard to beat. Getting them to stay down is a problem." He said arrogantly.

" If you hang onto the weapon which becomes an ingredient for the 'purge' spell you will get burnt." Sonya said with a grimace. " I'm glad my worries were groundless. For now anyways. But this presents another problem. We can't really get much from fighting them and the more waves of them we fight the harder it is going to get... Eventually we might be fighting things we can't really handle... At least not as we are and not with our numbers..." Sonya said.  
The king rested his head in his palm. " I like that you are cautious Lady Brint. But I think we can prepare unless the level of the enemy spikes far beyond reason." The king said calmly. " However, I think it goes without saying that those who fight these enemies should be wary of using the purge spell." The king said and had food brought to everyone.

"Can we also remember that these things don't drop much of anything but junk let alone stick around to be absorbed?" Ishiku-san said with his arms crossed. Everyone agreed with this one. The first invasion did not give much. Or so it seemed.  
"Um-uh... None of you have noticed?" Uta-san asked.  
Sonya looked over at her and then went wide eyed. "No... Way!" Sonya said and pulled up her menu. She looked at a counter she did not realize was there until now. She had 5,700 souls. "Did anyone notice fluttery lights flying towards you when you killed the enemy?" Sonya asked. Everyone shook their heads. Sonya sighed. Things were not quite adding up.

"This is screwed up. We have people's souls?" Ishiku-san yelled once he looked at his menu. Sonya Thought about it for a moment.  
Arashi-san raised his hands up defensively. "Hey, calm down... I'm sure there is an explanation to this... Birinte-san?" Arashi-san said thankful that Ishiku-san sat down grumbling about the sick world Sonya came from.  
Sonya sighed. " Lordran is a very... Convoluted world. I honestly don't quite know what exactly souls really are. In Lordran they are use as a currency as well as leveling up... But you have to have a Bonfire for that... And we really have no means of doing that..." Sonya said calmly.

Ishiku-san laughed. " Are you an idiot? Bonfires are easy to make! All you have to do is have a lot a fuel and start burning it!"The spear hero scoffed. The others simply looked at him knowing is wasn't that simple. Even the king himself was shaking his head.  
" I-I don't think that is what Birinte-san meant Ishiku-san." Uta-san said as she fiddled with her fingers.

" Bonfires are not normal fires you can simply build. They are enchanted fire that Souls and Humanity are fed into to keep lit... Some of which can not be sustained without a Firekeeper... They heal you of all damage and allow you to upgrade your stats... But the thing is, every time you 'rest' at a bonfire the world is reset. And as I said, Lordran is VERY convoluted. Undead respawn after resting at a bonfire and I am pretty sure you have to be undead to use bonfires. So unless there is another way... I don't think we will be able to use the souls we collect." Sonya said calmly.

This was not good news. Arashi-san raised his hand in the air. "What if we CAN make a bonfire. If we have to kill them with their own weapons then why can't we use what we looted to create bonfires?" Arashi-san asked.  
Sonya frowned."Because you need a Rite of Kindling I suppose. Otherwise I wouldn't have any idea how you would 'make' a bonfire. Only how you relight it... And really, unless we can somehow use an enchanted flame that can stably continue to burn... I don't really have high hopes. I'm sorry." Sonya said.  
Ishiku-san growled. " Do you always have to be a downer?!" The spear hero yelled. Sonya simply shrugged.  
"I'm just telling you everything I know. Lordran isn't exactly a place of happy go lucky unicorns and rainbows that have fluffy bunnies handing out free candy you know! If we can make a bonfire then it might present it's own problems... Like distorting this world's time and space." Sonya said calmly.  
The king stood up and clasped his hands together with a loud clap.  
"I think I have a better option. The Dragon Hourglass." The king said calmly.

The next order of business was for them to visit the famed clock tower that housed the hourglass. Sonya placed a hand on it and a menu opened up. That's when she noticed that her stats profile had changed again. She started to read a menu.

'Each Soul Level is dependent on a hero's Master Level. Every master level a hero reaches, a hero may gain 7.125 Soul Levels depending on the souls a hero has obtained and spends. The maximum level capacity a hero can reach of Soul Levels is 713. Once capped the Master Level will no longer effect the Soul Levels.'

Sonya took a deep breath an exhaled as she thought about what kind of build did she want. She was free to spend her souls on whatever stat she wanted but that didn't necessarily mean that stat was worth while. She wished she could simply save her souls for later without having to worry about her loosing them...But then again her loosing them meant she had to die right? She thought about it. What if there was other ways to loose them in this world because they were in this world and not Lordran. She quickly searched the help menu for Souls.

'Souls are obtained by killing enemies from Lordran as well as some enemies of the Home World. Souls can be lost by taking excessive amount of damage but loosing them will heal the Hero preventing death.'

Sonya stared at this not sure what to think about this. She almost Jumped when Siorradh poked her. She simply grinned when Sonya jumped. She had been so absorbed in her thoughts about this that she had forgot everyone that was here. She looked at Siorradh and Sioc with a guilty expression. " I'm sorry... I shouldn't have let this take up all my attention." Sonya said. Sioc simply huffed.  
" You are worried." Sioc said simply with a shrug. Siorradh simply smiled. " Don't worry. We aren't going anywhere. But you are if you don't hurry up. Sioc looks like he is ready to eat someone." The cat girl said teasingly.

Sonya took a quick glance at the Stats for soul leveling before leaving to go feed her two hungry subordinates. She tried to resist sighing as she watched the two eat a hole in her coin purse. But they were growing demi-humans after all. She took a glance at their levels and blinked. They were all at level 21. She couldn't believe this. How did they jump so... Sonya nearly jumped when a log menu popped up in her face. Her face turned pale. The enemies may have been scarce on loot but they were heavy on experience. She shook her head and started to laugh when she saw how much the Asylum Demon was worth in experience. It was ridiculous. "Check your battle logs." She said when the wolf and snow leopard demi-humans started to stare at her with worry.

Both of them dropped their utensils. She smiled at them seeing their faces of disbelief. Balloons were worth maybe 1 Exp. A hallow was worth a 20 exp. Hallow soldiers 30 Exp. And the more so forth. Sonya and her party had earned enough Exp. to jump quite a few levels. They had been around level 15 before the battle? Sonya went back to eating after she closed the menus. The two across from her were still staring at their in disbelief... " Are we going to be old and gray in no time? I don't want to go bold!" Sioc whined.

Siorradh rolled her eyes. " That isn't how it works." The Sneg-Kroshka said looking at her counterpart with annoyance. Sioc started grinning.. "Well if it is, at least I'm not going to have saggy boobs!" Sioc teased.  
Siorradh punched him in the arm. " Say that again and I swear I will knock your lights out you half wit mutt!" The cat girl yelled covering her chest. Sonya simply shook her head at the two. She didn't want to tell them to stop arguing like they were an old couple. She was pretty sure they wouldn't start aging until much later. That seemed to be the case.  
"Seriously you two, stop fighting. If anything I'm the only one that has to be worrying about age. The two of you won't have to worry for another fifteen years right?" She asked recalling a conversation with the cat knight about demi-humans leveling and aging.

The two of them shrugged. Sonya simply went back to eating. The two demi-humans stared at her. "How old are you Ms. Sonya?" Sioc asked. Sonya looked at the wolf boy annoyed. " Just Sonya or Lady Brint please. And don't you know it is impolite to ask a lady her age?" Sonya said teasingly before taking a sip of tea. " I'm twenty-four." She took another sip of tea and returned to eating. Siorradh kicked Sioc in the shin giving him a glare before she turned to Sonya with a smile. " So what will we be doing next?" The cat asked her.  
Sonya didn't answer immediately. She looked like she was considering this so both Sioc and Siorradh waited patiently. Sonya smiled. 'They are good kids.' She thought to herself, thankful for having them on her side.

" I'm going to review stats, then we will visit the adventurer guild for the month's support funds." She said and gave a little more thought to it. But something else came to mind. " Do the both of you have soul levels too?" She asked. She was glad when they both nodded. " I have 4560 souls." Siorradh said. Sioc had a proud grin on his face. "I have 6,570." He said with feeling proud of himself. The snow cat girl punched the wolf boy in the ribs. Sonya understood why. The only reason why she received souls was for implementing the purge spell. She didn't kill anything otherwise.

"So I guess that is a good thing." She said calmly as she finished her food and paid for the meal once Sioc and Siorradh finished. They followed her silently as she read about the stats on her way to the adventure guild, letting Siorradh keep her her from running into anyone while Sioc followed closely behind. People seemed to have a mix of expressions about her. She even heard a few people arguing about her. About how she plead to the king to instate a quarantine in case a plague was brought on from the invasion. This was, received with a mixture of responses. But she could tell she didn't exactly gain much favor from it. But no one was whispering about her being a man slaughterer.

By the time she arrived at the guild house she had learned from the help menu this:

Vitality increases HP- 10  
Endurance increases stamina and bleeding resist.- 15  
Strength did not increase her direct damage but allowed her to parry stronger opponents the more strength she has.- 15  
Dexterity also helped with parrying but also helped with spell casting speed.- 14 It also increased agility.  
Resistance was oriented towards poison, bleeding and elemental and non-elemental magic. 10  
Spell oriented intelligence was oriented towards how effective her magic was- 5  
Attunement was for how many spells she could use.-10

She also found out that everyone's stats were specific to each individual and effected each individual differently. Dex increased Siorrahd's agility twice as much as it did Sonya's. Strength not only helped Sioc parry but effected his damage output. Sonya tried to resist sighing. It was all becoming a mess of complicated numbers. And the least complicated was that when she finally received her month's five gold worth of coins, she knew they wouldn't last long. They were quickly growing and enemies in this world were not going to be any easier. Nor hunting them.

They needed a means for money. This made Sonya frown. Sioc stared at the floor shuffling his feet. Sonya could hear his stomach growling. Siorradh looked at her sheepishly. Food wasn't exactly cheap. Sonya groaned. They needed to get out of the city and find a steadier supply of food that DIDN'T require her wallet to be steadily depleted.

It was back to the tavern to buy some food and off to the forest while they ate on the go. Sonya made them hunt while she studied her stats, made an inventory of their belongings, planned out how to use their funds and roughly scheduled the intervals she would be repairing their weapons. It was late afternoon when the two came back, Siorradh with a smirk on her face while Sioc sat down dripping wet with river water. Apparently the cat girl had pushed him. That was when a carriage pulled up and stopped in front of their campsite. Young man with black hair wearing a leather vest over a green tunic and beige pants hopped down from his driver's seat. The carriage was pulled by a large two legged bird called a Philorial. And they looked like chocobo.

The man himself walked up to Sonya confidently and stopped about ten feet away before bowing with a flourish as he removed a feathered hat from his head while doing so. " Can I interest you in any of my wares Lady Hero?" The man asked giving her a smile. Sonya stood up and looked down at him with an evaluating gaze. The man was a thin dwarf who looked up at her now with a nervous smile. She was nearly twice his height and was wearing her chimera hide armor.  
" I think I'll take a gander at your wares. What have you got on your marry wagon good sir?" She asked while giving the dwarf a curtsy in return. She knew she must look somewhat intimidating. Or maybe it was the wolf boy and the snow cat girl who were right behind her looking at the man with toothy smiles before hearing Sonya try to talk fancy.

The dwarf gave Sonya a 'you have much practice ahead of you with fancy talk ma'am' shaking head before he started to open the sides of his carriage to display shelves and shelves of everything from weapons to magic crystals, to books, pens, paper, maps and so forth. Sonya shrugged. She recalled that she couldn't read... But she could use some books to help her learn. " Do you happen to have anything that can help me learn the written language in this region? The most used one anyways?" Sonya asked.

The dwarf peddler nodded and climbed up a ladder. " Right here madam." He said as he pulled out a small book. "These are rather cheap... Would you mind buying a blank book for practice? Perhaps some ink?"

Sonya cocked her head to the side considering his offer. " Yes to the small book, yes to the blank writing book and no to the ink. Rather, I would like to have a small bag I can put charcoal in." Sonya said calmly with a smile. The dwarf blinked. He stood there thinking about it for a moment put then started to laugh. " Old fashioned I see. Alright then, alright then!" He said setting down out a small bag. "I would also like a book on cooking recipes, one on apprentice level apothecary and basic magic if available."

Siorradh tugged on the Sonya's sleeve and whispered something before giving her a pleading gesture. Sonya sighed. " And a bag of candy too... If you have any." Sonya added shaking her head.

The total surprisingly came to two gold coins. The bag, candy, writing book, the cook book, and the language book were all just a few copper coins. The apprentice compounding book was a few silver. The basic magic book was worth quite a lot more. In all Sonya paid two gold coins with a up to date detailed map of Melromark thrown in for free. Sonya waved farewell and gave the 'kids' their candy. She frowned when Siorradh saw fit to tease Sioc but let it go and smiled when she was finally nice enough to give him a little more than half the bag.

The next month would be filled with training, learning how to read, learning magic, more training, learning how to make medicine and poisons, more training, and sleep. And somewhere in between all of this they would fit in traveling and gathering food. Sonya looked at her bandaged arms and sighed. Maybe she should have asked for some salves?


	10. Chapter 10

Sonya was glad when Sioc and Siorradh had finally stopped growing. Their ravenous hunger now became something more stable and manageable like her own. But now she was looking up at a volki man who was a head above her height and a slim woman who was looking her in the eyes. Sonya was secretly happy that she sported the bigger bust size though. But she doubted the sneg-koshka cared. In fact she was probably glad because they didn't get in the way.

Their personalities didn't change much. Sioc was still her little... not so little loyal soldier and eager student. Siorradh, Sonya guessed was just revealing more of her personality. She was loyal, that much was clear. And just as eager of a student. But she wasn't someone that was afraid of pointing out where and when Sonya fell short on something. Or offer her what she thought would be a better alternative. It was mostly helpful and Sonya was patient about it... Other times it was plain annoying because the cat wasn't always right. Sonya had pointed this out on numerous occasions that Siorradh was still naïve about certain things and Sonya was the elder with fourteen years more experience. But she was wise enough to use legitimate examples to show this. Sioc... He enjoyed simply letting things be. Sonya felt like he had a lazy side. Maybe more of a laid back nature when it came to conversations. He was still eager to impress... Which presented its own problems.

The two young demi-humans were more than eager to try and out do the other. Sioc with his brute strength and perseverance... or Rather stubbornness, and Siorradh with her swiftness and cunning... And mischievousness... Often times their rivalry made her worry. But she couldn't help that their antics remained amusing. It was a week after the second wave and Sonya had made very little progress with anything other than making charcoal writing utensils and making detailed plans in hopes that they would increase production. Which, only three out of four times was the case.

Sonya sighed as she looked over her logs again. The money they had had only increased a little. She had recorded the route the dwarf peddler took and how much he sold things they might need as well as what was the highest salable item available that she could so far obtain... Which was low quality basic compounding and arrowheads that Sioc was fond of making even though he had more than enough to use to make ten quiver full of arrows. Then there was the stone knives that Siorradh liked to make which were well made and even had bone handles. And the monster hides. Sonya still took in the fact that they were not going to make much money quickly. Not unless they took up requests again. And they couldn't. Sonya was still injured to where she couldn't fight just yet. Or really travel like they use to.

It was frustrating. "You know, you could just tutor other people in Rock Valley and Melromarc in your style of martial arts. I'm sure people would pay for that." Siorradh offered as she busily chipped away at a piece of quartz with a piece of wood before grinding away at it. She was getting very good at this. That was when Sioc came back with what looked like a cross between a deer and a mountain lion. And it looked like it had been rather dangerous. But the volki boy... Man... Was grinning widely. The cat girl... Woman... Simply rolled her eyes. " What? You could not avoid bashing its skull in could you?" Siorradh taunted while Sioc began to prepare what would be dinner. On that note, Sonya did not do any of the cooking. Anymore. She was not allowed. Completely forbidden. Somehow, some way Sioc had easily surpassed her in cooking abilities. And it was probably with the help of the cook book.

Siorradh sighed. Sioc was ignoring her. She looked over to Sonya. " Sonya-san... you are about to mix the wrong herbs again. Here let me show you..." The snow cat said as she quickly made a poultices that far exceeded the quality Sonya could... Was there anything she WAS good at besides strategy and logging information? She sighed and went back to studying how to write the common language of this world. At least she was beginning to grasp this quickly enough. "Siorradh, would you like taking over the apothecary work?" Sonya asked after she started to take a break from writing and copying the Melromarkian character table. At least it wasn't as complicated as trying to remember kanji. Or how the English alphabet worked. Despite being born an American she hated trying to learn English.

Siorradh looked up from making a vial of 'common medicine.' She pondered it for a moment then nodded happily and went back to work looking like she was concentrating very intently. Sioc was now preparing the intestines to become sausage casings. Sonya learned that dried meat was easy to make but required them to drink more water. She also learned that any other meat wouldn't last very long so whatever excess they didn't eat would either be used as bait or turned into dried meat.

So now Sonya was in a dilemma. Sure, she could teach other people how to fight... But she also needed some kind of talent that she could use. But what? What on this... Planet? World? Was this place round or flat? Did it really matter? What in the lands of Melromarc was she good at? Sonya groaned. At a loss she started to pick grass and weave them together as she waited for dinner and in between her studies. Eventually she had a nice hat that she wore happily on her head. Maybe she could make herself a pair of sandals next? Eventually, studying started to become a chore and weaving things was a fun activity. She made herself some sandals and a hat for Siorradh. Sioc was more than happy not looking like a 'shadow' or ninja as Sonya called them. Siorradh was grinning though. " I wonder how much something like these would sale for? At least a few copper if not a silver coin?" Siorradh said to Sioc who just nodded before looking up at what the cat lady was talking about. He blinked.

" You know, a bunch of those could make a quite a few copper... Or maybe some silver?" He said and shrugged. Siorradh shook her head. The volki hadn't been listening at all. He simply went back to cooking them dinner. Which no one could be mad at him for. He made delicious food. Sonya simply smiled at the feline for making a good suggestion. " At least he isn't hugging up on you like he use to." Siorradh said looking annoyed at him. Sonya laughed softly.  
"Jealous that he was getting more attention?" Sonya asked remembering when she was smaller and would also try hugging her... And then get in a fight with Sioc. Siorradh looked up at the trees. " No. Whatever makes you think something like that?" The cat lady said before Sonya gently patted her on the shoulder.

" Don't give him TOO hard of a time. Our aspiring cook does feed us. Even if you are sometimes the one catching the food." Sonya said and then gave the young woman a teasing smirk. "Just remember that when you hunt, don't use poison."  
Siorradh smiled wryly and laughed nervously. " Honest mistake." The cat said.  
Sioc huffed. " That nearly made us all very sick." He grumbled. The feline scowled at him. The canine just simply handed her a plate with a slab of medium rare deer-lion steak. Sonya's was cooked to medium and his was rare. " Thank you for the food!" They all said and started using the hand made chop sticks they all had to eat with. Sioc had already cut their meat into sizable pieces.  
Siorradh looked at Sioc a little annoyed. " You know, we can't always just eat meat. What about mushrooms? Or some kind of vegetables?" Siorradh asked. Sioc shrugged as he popped a practically bloody piece of steak into his mouth. He waited until he finished chewing to speak. Sonya smirked, knowing she had taught him well.

"You learn how to identify food worthy veggies and I will learn how to saute the things." Sioc said calmly. " If we get a pot, maybe we can have stew now and again." Sonya blinked when she noticed them sharing a smirk and a nod. She felt uneasy about this. Whenever they did that it was like a dare. And they did not go back on dares. This part of their rivalry worried her the most. But maybe things would be different on this one?

Fat chance. The next day Siorradh had outdone herself with bringing a basket full of 'edible' plants she had found foraging the next day. Sioc simply prepared a fire and cleaned his frying pan to get ready the sausage he had made yesterday. He would be busy making dried meat all day. Which meant they would be busy with other things all day. Sonya was starting to make something similar to a tatami mat. She had unlocked a shield last night as well.

Category- Skill branch  
Weaver's Shield  
Equipment bonus: Apprentice Weaving Unmastered  
Efficiency level: 0

She was working on trying to master the shield so she could possibly master others... But the only thing it reacted to were the sandals she made. So she went out of her way to try and master it and then use it to level up her weaving efficiency. That took all day to do. Luckily once she mastered it the efficiency went up after completing a number of mats.

The poor dwarf peddler had a wry face when he was paying them more than they were paying him the next day.

All was well. Sioc's food was edible, Siorradh's edible veggies were not poisonous (Sonya checked while she wasn't looking) and they made a few silver back. Now if Sonya's arms weren't hurting like hell.

The day after the big sale they returned to their normal routines. Sonya couldn't exactly help them in a fight but she was still a part of the party and supported them from the rear. Her slaver shield had been unlocked and now allowed for their stat growth and level growth to increase. So she wasn't entirely useless. The weird thing was that the shield came already mastered. She also understood that this shield might take a little while to level its efficiency. Sonya contended herself with practicing pushing a tree over. Of course, the tree wasn't going to budge for her but that wasn't the point in her mind. She needed to strain herself to stay in shape and she couldn't use her shield in combat effectively still. In fact she realized she had a debuff that was counting down the days until she was healed. Another week.

That was when the spear guy passed by with his party and laughed at her. Oh how much she would love to just bush the tree over and on top of him. Instead she was content with chasing Ishiku-san around with a large red balloon that looked like it wanted to eat him. She had a much higher defense than the Red Balloon had offense so when it tried to bight her it only ended up tickling. She laughed like a maniac as she chased him with Ishiku-san's party members wondering if they should intervene. They did not. This was Sonya's exercise for the day.

" Do... Do you... Ever... *Huff Huff* Run out.. * Huff * …. Of energy?" Ishiku-san asked around the beginning of evening as he stumbled away from a walking Sonya. She stopped to think about it. " Sure, eventually." She said. The Red Balloon was chewing at her arm. " Bye." She said leaving the spear hero to collapse on the ground. They had been running in large circles since morning.

Siorradh stared at Sonya. " Do you like him or something?" The feline asked with a frown. Sioc was also frowning. Neither of them really liked the Spear Hero. " No, not really. I just thought it was a fun Idea to chase him with this." She said with a straight face as she started to flap he arm that was being gnawed on. The cat woman sighed and stabbed it. " Really?" Siorradh asked as Sonya thanked hr and started to walk back to camp. Sonya looked at the cat seemingly genuinely perplex with the idea. " Is it so unbelievable that I like giving the guy hell because he is an ass to me?" She asked.

Sioc walked next to her. " What do you think of us?" He asked getting her to stop in her tracks. Sonya looked confused. Siorradh looked at the wolf man as if he was out of his mind but it was obvious she was wondering that too. " What do you mean? I like you guys! You both have really helped me out and have been really cool." She said readily with a smile. Sioc looked unsure of himself with this answer. "What are we to you?" Siorradh asked. Sonya looked at them both and gave it some thought. She sighed, pulled Sioc over next to Siorradh, made him crouch so the were level with her and hugged them both tightly. She hugged them like that for a long moment. Sonya smiled at them after stepping away and started to walk back towards camp, only looking back to make sure they were going to follow. She felt like her answer was clear enough for now. 

* * *

Just to be clear: 1 I had to end this chapter short. 2. Sonya does not have feelings for Ishiku-San other than a bit of resentment. Okay then. On to Chapter 11!


	11. Chapter 11

Two weeks later and Sonya was getting the hang of this reading thing. She still wasn't allowed to cook. Or do anything more than help identify plants with Siorradh when it came to apothecary work. Otherwise, she was a weaver. But now, since she was fully healed other than some scars she was helping with killing things. Her magic, so far seemed to be heavily supportive or healing. But she seemed to have a third category. She was able to cause damage to other things that attacked her and her companions. A 'retribution' class of spells. She seemed to have a lot available to her. The magic book had basic spells, but only magic she had an affinity for was actually legible once she was able to learn the language.

Quick heal was the only healing spell she had so far. Of her supportive spells she had several temporary stat boosting spells that were all 'Faust' level or the weakest. One for speed, one for defense, one for attack, one for stamina, a few for raising different resistances. Her largest affinity seemed to be retribution magic. The first was poisoning enemies that attacked her or allies she cast the spell on. Another hampered the speed of the enemy including their attack speed. Then there was one that caused burns, which she loved because it caused more damage over time then the poison did. Another was similar to her thorn aura but it only worked for allies excluding herself. These were also 'Faust' level.

Sioc and Siorradh seemed to both have an affinity for ice magic. This seemed unsurprising. But Sioc also had an affinity for water magic while Siorradh had an affinity for wind magic. Being able to use magic was making quests even easier. But the amount of quests involving trolls and mercenary bands were becoming alarming. It seemed like the country was being invaded by different kinds of trolls. Some were forest trolls and others were mountain trolls. Either were big, mean, and not keen on the idea of being taken down very easily.

As of right now Sonya was being wailed on by a large mountain troll who ignored the fact that each time he (assuming this because it wore a loincloth) attack it took various damage and status effects. The creature was on practically on fire from her Faust Will-o-wisp spell. And her Thorn Aura was causing small slices and bleeding. But it wasn't enough. Siorradh attacked from a tree using wind magic to propel ice shards at the creatures face and neck while Sioc used water and ice magic to create and throw ice javelins. The creature was not going down willingly.

Sonya grunted when the creature ripped a tree from the ground and hit her with it. She withstood it but it hurt. She was taking damage despite her poise and shield stability. "Shield Rush!" Sonya yelled aiming for one of its legs that she ran into and knocked the creature down. Sioc took this opportunity to use his spear to stab it in the back of its neck. "Siorradh, Sioc! Use your magic together to open a larger wound!" Sonya yelled. Sioc looked at her confused until Siorradh started to use a combination of wind and ice magic to continuously blow an icy breeze towards the tip of Sioc's spear once she got on to the mountain troll's back.. Sioc caught on and used his water and ice magic to force water into the opening he created. The creature started to shriek and try to buck them but Sonya made sure it didn't get back up on it's feet.

They ended up beheading the the monster that way. Sonya sighed. They were all exhausted. The trolls that were invading were getting harder to repel. And they were now having difficulty with just repelling one. Sonya wasn't happy with the situation. They needed a larger party to do more damage per second. Sonya looked at her log book. The quest they were on was to defend the village in the mountains of Melromark. It wasn't an easy task. Especially because the village had little to no defenses. Things were not looking pretty.

"Guys, we are going to need help... And we are probably going to need some way to fortify this village some." Sonya said. They had encountered the mountain troll on a scouting routine and decided to neutralize it before it caused any damage. Fighting trolls was not fun.

Sioc frowned and 'hmphed.' Siorradh simply sighed. "I understand. I guess we need to tell the villagers?" The feline asked. Sonya simply nodded. It was straight to the village leader. An old stubborn man who wasn't very reasonable. This would be a headache.

The head of the village was an older man who was not afraid of speaking his mind. Nor saying things that would offend others. Such was the case currently as Sonya knocked on the door of a cabin and an the village chief answered the door. "Oh, it's you. What do you want?" The man asked looking at her with distaste. The next few hour was spent with Sonya trying to convince the old man that they needed to hire more help. He refused, saying he was not going to spend any more of his money until the job was done. Sonya sat at a chair at his table and made the suggestion to take it out of their pay then. The village's safety was more important than their pay.

The old man eyed her for a moment before laughing at her and and not so politely calling her a few choice words before continuing to laugh at her for wanting to work dirt cheap. He accepted her request and Sonya bid him farewell. Sonya had made Sioc and Siorradh wait outside. They were both very angry but fell right behind her. Sioc was growling. " Why do you put up with that bastard?" He asked once they got to their INN. "Are you really going to just let it go?"  
Sonya simply sat on her bed and smiled. " Oh my dear. I'm sorry if you have feelings for him. But I have every intention of beating him within an inch of his life." She said rather happily. " I love you both dearly, and I don't mind being mistaken as a mother to you both. But I do not enjoy the way he insinuates it every time I am within earshot of him."

The fact that Sonya was still smiling pleasantly when she said all this made both the demi-humans very uncomfortable. She seemed to already have mad up her find what she was going to do with him. " So don't worry. After I'm done he won't be able to have any more children even if he wasn't too old to." She said calmly. The man was nearly twice her age but she was sure kicking him in the crouch would hurt like hell. But she didn't plan on simply ending there. The menacing smile widened as she thought about the man's agony waiting for him.

Sioc looked at Sonya as if he made up his mind about something. " Sonya, I don't want you to be a mom to me." Sioc said looking at her taking her armor off. Sonya didn't respond. "I want to you to know I-" Sioc tried to finish but Sonya cut him off.  
" Sioc, I'm not going to replace you mother. Or any family. I want you to know I care about you and I will do my best to look out for you and Siorradh. I will do my best to protect the both of you as you have me. So don't worry." Sonya said, cutting the wolf man off. Sioc looked at her for a moment then sighed.  
" Okay. For now I need to get some fresh air. I'll be back." He said calmly and left.

Siorradh threw a pillow at Sonya after Sioc left. " Why wouldn't you let him confess to you?" Siorradh asked. Sonya started to get changed out of her under armor and into her usual gray dress. " Because now isn't the time to really pursue romance. Now is a time we need to be fighting to survive. Even in the calm before the storm we are still struggling. I don't want the complications of a relationship right now. That goes for the both of you. Hold off until after we stop this invasion. Then we can be free to live our lives." Sonya said bluntly.

Siorradh sighed and threw her arms giving up. " Fine. But don't you love him?" The feline asked as she plopped down on the bed her and Sonya were sharing. Sonya simply smiled.  
"I love you both." She said simply. Siorradh looked at Sonya cautiously. " That's not what I meant... Unless... You are 'that way.'" Siorradh said.  
Sonya looked at Siorradh confused for a moment the gently kicked the feline out off the bed once it clicked what she meant. " No! No I am not 'that way'" Sonya said.  
Siorradh sighed in relief and started to laugh. " Good. So, you really don't have any feelings for Sioc?" Siorradh asked.

Sonya smiled at the cat deviously. " I think how he wags his tail when I praise him for doing a good job is rather cute." Sonya said simply.  
Siorradh looked at her for a moment as if not seeing why that had anything to do with what they were talking about. Siorradh started to turn red.  
Sonya smiled. "He also-" Sonya began but Siorradh waved her arms begging her to stop.  
"No more, no more! I don't want to hear it!" Siorradh wined. Sonya simply smiled deviously. " I see." She said and started to wash her face and hands before pulling a toothbrush from her back.

"Please don't say stuff like that. He's an idiot but that idiot has really become like a brother to me." Siorradh said. She watched Sonya who was using a mirror that was in their room.  
" And that is why you are trying to help him even if he is your rival." Sonya said simply. Siorradh nodded. Sonya looked back at the cat annoyed. " I'd rather you two go back to acting your age. I get that you both are adults but that doesn't mean you can't get away with not acting like it. Am I wrong?" Sonya asked after she finished brushing.

Siorradh looked at the other woman annoyed. " I don't want to act like a silly little kid." She said very firmly.  
Sonya simply giggled. " Then act like a silly young woman. I'm not going to stop you. But if Sioc tries to make any advances you know I'm going to shoot them down... So... Won't you keep him busy?" Sonya asked as she sat on her bed. " The both of you are very competitive. So, until we finally have peace... Can you... I'm sorry I have to ask this of you. I just don't want either of you hurt."

The feline looked at Sonya and put a hand on her Vambrace Shield. "You really do fit well as a shield hero." Siorradh said and left the room to go find Sioc. And probably pounce on him just to mess with him.

It was five days before reinforcements arrived. Sonya and her group were run ragged. The trolls were starting to invade with more force each day and before back up arrived the village had been forced to take refuge in the stockade they had managed to construct. Sonya sighed. Video Game logic made it so anyone using a ranged weapon wasn't effective unless they were a high enough level. Uta-san arrived. Sioc stood on the wall with a ice javelin in hand. " Thank goodness. Do you have any idea how glad we are to see you?" Sioc called out. They opened the gates.

" Sioc, we need you at the east side! They are coming at the shepherd's gate!" Siorradh called out.  
Uta-San followed close behind the volki as he ran across the village and up the steps to stand on the platform so he could look above the palisade.  
"Raah! These things don't stop coming!" He yelled and started throwing the javelins. Uta-san looked around her carefully. "Where is Birinte-San?" Uta-san asked. Sioc sighed and ducked behind the wall when a rock was chucked at his head. "She's with the wood cutters acting as an escort and decoy." Sioc said calmly.  
Uta-san looked at Sioc as if he was out of his mind. " She's fighting them by herself?" Uta-San asked. Sioc popped up to throw a javelin at a forest troll's eyes. " She's gotten to where she can handle herself long enough to pull it off. Have faith in her. I do." Sioc said and watched as Uta-san dropped one of the trolls with a shot to the heart. "But she can't hurt them. She's a shield weilder!" Uta-san protested.

Sioc laughed. " She can kill things by herself. It takes a bit longer than it would you or me, but don't tell me she can't hurt them. The more they attack her the more of a hurting she puts on them." Sioc said.

With reinforcements, they were able to repel another wave. It was hours before Sonya returned. Her band had wooden planked shield on their backs and guiding horses, oxes, and philorial who were carrying wagons of logs and saplings. "Okay men and women! We need those stakes made to fill the ditches. Gordo, how are the embankments coming along?" Sonya said as she went about getting status reports from different people. Men, women, elf, or dwarf. Some were even demi-humans. Uta-san looked at Sonya as she really took charge with constructing the fortifications. A man who was in the Stocks yelled at her. People ignored him. He was the old head of the village. It was the next day after she had made her request that she discovered that he was abandoning them all. After that she took over.

Uta-San looked at the village. They had replaced the village buildings with thicker cabin walls and roofs to act as shelter. They were then covered in stucco to add fire resistance in case the trolls tried to burn them down. Sonya was staring to turn the village into a small fort and it seemed like she was planning on allowing for expansion once they started receiving a steady supply of stone.

Uta-San was impressed. "Birinte-San!" Uta-San called out and waved. Sonya finished speaking with a group of dwarven engineers before walking over to Uta-San. Sonya looked very worn. Her armor was damaged to the point that she was only wearing her chest and leg armor of her Chimera armor with her under armor. The rest was regular cow hide. It seemed like everyone had been suffering through various sieges. But Sonya kept everyone productive.

"Glad to see you hear Uta-San. We have really been needing help. The troll army has been attacking us relentlessly from the north and we are trying to hold things down until the King can mobilize his army." Sonya said and pulled out a book. " Here... Oh... Um. Can you read the local language?"  
Uta-San looked at the woman standing before her impressed. Uta-San had felt like she had gained confidence since the last invasion but Sonya had learned how to become literate, learned a variety of Tzuvait level magic. Her small group had become specialized in apothecary, leather work, cooking, fetching, flint knapping. Sonya herself was very good at weaving.

Uta-San shook her head. Sonya sighed. " Alright then. Let me explain." She said and showed the archer a detailed map of their surrounding area. " About five miles from here to the north there is a troll encampment. We have been trying to do some damage at night with small strike teams but we just don't have enough people. We probably still won't do more then put a dent into their forces but maybe it will be enough to force them to have to gather and resupply. We are most often attacked from the direct north but they have gotten wise and started to attack from the west and east. We are trying to expand out but..." Sonya climbed and pointed out several outposts that had been demolished.

"We have held out so far. We are hoping to gain ground now if possible but the trolls are getting close to level 40s now. Things aren't easy." Sonya concluded. Uta-San surveyed their surroundings. " How much food do we have?" The Bow Hero asked.

Sonya smiled wryly. " Well, we have been able to get by but without constant foraging we are going to end up eating the livestock. About five days worth without resupply before we just have livestock and maybe a months worth of livestock and grain that the villagers aren't keen on chewing through..." Sonya answered earnestly.

Uta-San frowned. They were not in the best situation but they could last. Sonya was obviously trying to save the village from falling into a difficult financial situation. Even if they survived the invasion, they still needed something to live off of after wards.

One of Uta-San gunners came in to report that the village was secure. Sonya seemed amused. She ordered a couple elves to ready for recon missions along the hills and asked for Uta-San if she could have some of her party prepare as for a strike force. Uta-San blinked. " You really think they are in the valley?" The archer asked. Sonya nodded.

"I know they are. It is just a matter of finding them. The scouts will flash a blue stone if they aren't and a red stone if an enemy is spotted, then green if the area is safe for a team to go out." Sonya said. Siorradh looked at her comrade. "You need to get some rest Sonya-San. Me and Sioc can take over for a while." She said. Sonya sighed and shook her head. " Have Sioc taken off duty too then. Once the afternoon shift starts you too." Sonya said then turned to the Bow Hero. "Uta-San, if you would please? We will be needing wall guards to watch for any raiders"

Uta-San nodded and with that a mole beastman took charge and tried to negotiate shifts with Uta-san and her party.

Things were looking brighter. But they didn't know just how bad their situation would turn out without reinforcements.


	12. Hiatus

Dear Readers,

Due to my current situation many of my stories are now being put on hold. I do apologize for the lack of notification and information as well as not updating. I DO plan on returning to my stories. I have a lot to do. But unfortunately life is very busy. I have classes four days a week and a work two part time jobs. So yeah. ^^;; I will try to do SOMETHING to try and get back to my previous projects and that may require me to start one other story so I can tie them all together... . Or not. We will see. For now, I want to let you know 'The Stray', 'The Leaf Whistler', 'The New Shield Hero', and Re-writing 'Dealing with the Ancients' is on a break. I am trying to work on a some stories though still. ^^;; One called Lefko which is on FictionPress and another that will be a misc. crossover on here called 'The Adventures of Gray' which is another of my OC characters and is very special to me.

I am sorry for the lack of updates and information... And the starting of other projects. (Getting side tracked. . ) But I will try to make the wait worth it! In the mean time I am starving for feedback! ^^;; Thank you for reading my stories and for understanding.

-Mionikoi


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